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To most people, money is a motivator, which is robustly true for salespeople. A high love of money attitude predicts university students’ poor academic performance in a business course and cheating in laboratory experiments and multiple panel studies, but money (income) itself does not predict dishonesty. Extrinsic reward undermines intrinsic motivation. Very little research has incorporated the grit construct in the sales literature and explored the relationship between grit and the love of money. Further, a growth mindset and a fixed mindset may also impact salespeople’s job performance. This study aims to explore a brand-new theoretical structural equation model (SEM) and investigate the relationships between individual characteristics (growth and fixed mindsets and grit orientation) and job performance directly and indirectly through a mediator – salespeople’s love of money attitude.

This study uses Qualtrics and collects data from 330 business-to-business (B2B) salespeople across several industries in the USA. This study uses a formative SEM model to test this study’s hypotheses.

First, there are significant correlations among grit, a growth mindset and a fixed mindset, revealing no construct duplication or redundancy. Second, both a growth mindset and grit indirectly enhance job performance through the love of money attitude – a mediator, offering a brand-new discovery. Third, counter-intuitively, a growth mindset and grit do not directly improve job performance. Fourth, grit is significantly and negatively related to the love of money attitude, adding a new twist to this study’s theoretical model. Fifth, a fixed mindset undermines job performance directly but is unrelated to the love of money. Overall, B2B salespeople’s love of money attitude (employee demand) undermines sales personnel’s self-reported job performance (organization demand) in the organization and employee’s supply and demand exchange relationship.

The findings reveal that a growth mindset, a fixed mindset and grit contribute differently to sales personnel’s love of money attitude and job performance in this study’s theoretical model. The love of money serves as a mediator. A commonly accepted belief is that money is a motivator. Money (income) itself and the love of money attitude are two separate constructs. This study’s novel discoveries provide the essential missing monetary-aspirations-to-job-performance link in the literature – ardent monetary aspiration undermines self-reported job performance. This study offers inspiration to help decision-makers make happy, healthy and wealthy decisions and improve performance.

This paper takes the manufacturing cluster supply chain as the research object and explores the evaluation and enhancement strategy of manufacturing cluster supply chain synergy. The purpose of this study was to (1) analyze the mechanism of manufacturing cluster supply chain synergy; (2) construct manufacturing cluster supply chain synergy evaluation model; (3) algorithm realization of manufacturing cluster supply chain synergy evaluation and (4) propose manufacturing cluster-based supply chain synergy enhancement strategy.

Breaking through the limitations of traditional manufacturing cluster supply chain synergy evaluation, we take horizontal synergy and vertical synergy as coupled synergy subsystems, use the complex system synergy model to explore the horizontal synergy between core enterprises and cluster enterprises and the vertical synergy of supply chain enterprises and use the coupling coordination model to construct the coupled synergy evaluation model of manufacturing cluster supply chain, which is an innovation of the evaluation perspective of previous cluster supply chain synergy and also an enrichment and supplementation of the evaluation methodology. This is not only the innovation of the evaluation perspective but also the enrichment and supplementation of the evaluation method.

Using Python software to conduct empirical analysis on the evaluation model, the research shows that the horizontal and vertical synergies of the manufacturing cluster supply chain interact with each other and jointly affect the coupling synergy. On this basis, targeted strategies are proposed to enhance the synergy of the manufacturing cluster supply chain.

This study takes manufacturers, suppliers and sellers in the three-level supply chain as the research object and does not consider the synergistic evaluation between distributors and consumers in the supply chain, which can be further explored in this direction in the future.

Advanced manufacturing clusters, as the main force of manufacturing development, and the synergistic development of supply chain are one of the important driving forces for the high-quality development of China’s manufacturing industry. As a new type of network organization coupling industrial clusters and supply chains, cluster supply chain is conducive not only to improving the competitiveness of cluster supply chains but also to upgrading cluster supply chains through horizontal synergy within the cluster and vertical synergy in the supply chain.

Research can help accelerate the transformation and upgrading of clustered supply chains in the manufacturing industry, promote high-quality development of the manufacturing industry and accelerate the rise of the global value chain position of the manufacturing industry.

(1) Innovation of research perspective. Starting from two perspectives of horizontal synergy and vertical synergy, we take a core enterprise in the cluster supply chain as the starting point, horizontally explore the main enterprises of the cluster as the research object of horizontal synergy, vertically explore the upstream and downstream enterprises of the supply chain as the research object of vertical synergy and explore the coupling synergy of cluster supply chain as two subsystems, which provides new perspectives of evaluation of the degree of synergy and synergy evaluation. (2) Innovation of research content. Nine manufacturing clusters are selected as research samples, and through data collection and model analysis, it is verified that the evaluation model and implementation algorithm designed in this paper have strong practicability, which not only provides methodological reference for the evaluation of manufacturing cluster-type supply chain synergy but also reduces the loss caused by the instability of clusters and supply chains and then provides a theoretical basis for improving the overall performance of cluster-type supply chains.

Patriotism is often described as the “love of country” that individuals display in the acclamation of their national community. Despite the prominence of this sentiment in various societies around the world, organizational research on patriotism is largely absent. This omission is surprising because entrepreneurs, human resource (HR) divisions, and firms frequently embrace both patriotism and patriotic organizational practices. These procedures include (among other interventions) national symbol embracing, HR practices targeted toward military members and first responders, the adulation of patriots and celebration of patriotic events, and patriotic-oriented corporate social responsibility (CSR). Here, the authors argue that research on HR management and organization studies will likely be further enhanced with a deeper understanding of the national obligation that can spur employee productivity and loyalty. In an attempt to jumpstart the collective understanding of this phenomenon, the authors explore the antecedents of patriotic organizational practices, namely, the effects of founder orientation, employee dispersion, and firm strategy. It is suggested that HR practices such as these lead to a patriotic organizational image, which in turn impacts investor, customer, and employee responses. Notably, the effect of a patriotic organizational image on firm-related outcomes is largely contingent on how it fits with the patriotic views of other stakeholders, such as investors, customers, and employees. After outlining this model, the authors then present a thought experiment of how this model may appear in action. The authors then discuss ways the field can move forward in studying patriotism in HR management and organizational contexts by outlining several future directions that span multiple levels (i.e., micro and macro). Taken together, in this chapter, the authors introduce a conversation of something quite prevalent and largely unheeded – the patriotic organization.

To improve the corrosion resistance of magnesium alloys, the construction of protective coatings is necessary to extend the service life of Mg-based materials.

SiO₂ nanoparticles modified by dodecyltrimethoxysilane (DTMS) were added to the PP and a superhydrophobic Mg(OH)₂/PP-60mSiO₂ composite coating was fabricated on the surface of AZ31 magnesium alloy via the hydrothermal method and subsequently the immersion treatment.

Hydrophilic SiO₂ nanoparticles become hydrophobic after modified by DTMS, showing a higher dispersibility in xylene. By incorporating modified SiO₂ nanoparticles into the composite PP coating, the hydrophobicity of the layer was enhanced, resulting in a contact angle of 166.3° and a sliding angle of 3.4°. It also improved the water repellency and durability of the coating. Furthermore, the intermediate layer of Mg(OH)₂ significantly strengthened the bond between the PP layer and the substrate. The Mg(OH)₂/PP-60mSiO₂ composite coating significantly enhances the corrosion resistance of the magnesium alloy by effectively blocking the infiltration of the corrosion anions during corrosion. The corrosion current density of the Mg(OH)₂/PP-60mSiO₂ composite coating is approximately 8.23 × 10^–9 A·cm^-2, which can achieve a magnitude three times lower than its substrate, making it a promising surface modification for the Mg alloy.

The composite coating effectively and durably enhances the corrosion resistance of magnesium alloys.

This research investigates whether focal firms employ strategic supply chain information disclosure, focusing on the concealment of supplier and customer identities, as part of their supply chain environmental risk management strategies (supplier sustainability risk and customer loss risk, respectively).

Using a panel dataset of Chinese listed firms from 2009 to 2019 and utilizing the suppliers’ environmental punishment of peer firms (peer events) as an exogenous shock and employing ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation, this study conducts a regression analysis to test how focal firms disclose the identities of their suppliers and customers.

Our results indicate that focal firms prefer to hide the identities of their suppliers and customers following the environmental punishment of peer firms’ suppliers. In addition, supplier concentration weakens the effect of withholding supplier identities, whereas customer concentration strengthens the effect of hiding customer identities. Mechanism analysis shows that firms hide supplier identities to avoid their reputation being affected and hide customer identities to prevent the deterioration of customers’ reputations and thus impact their market share.

Our study reveals that reputation spillover is another crucial factor in supply chain transparency. It is also pioneering in applying the anonymity theory to explain focal firms’ information disclosure strategy in supply chains.

Sustainable urban rail transit requires noise barriers. However, these barriers’ durability varies due to the differing aerodynamic impacts they experience. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the aerodynamic discrepancies of trains when they meet within two types of rectangular noise barriers: fully enclosed (FERNB) and semi-enclosed with vertical plates (SERNBVB). The research also considers the sensitivity of the scale ratio in these scenarios.

A 1:16 scaled moving model test analyzed spatiotemporal patterns and discrepancies in aerodynamic pressures during train meetings. Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics models, with scale ratios of 1:1, 1:8 and 1:16, used the improved delayed detached eddy simulation turbulence model and slip grid technique. Comparing scale ratios on aerodynamic pressure discrepancies between the two types of noise barriers and revealing the flow field mechanism were done. The goal is to establish the relationship between aerodynamic pressure at scale and in full scale.

The aerodynamic pressure on SERNBVB is influenced by the train’s head and tail waves, whereas for FERNB, it is affected by pressure wave and head-tail waves. Notably, SERNBVB's aerodynamic pressure is more sensitive to changes in scale ratio. As the scale ratio decreases, the aerodynamic pressure on the noise barrier gradually increases.

A train-meeting moving model test is conducted within the noise barrier. Comparison of aerodynamic discrepancies during train meets between two types of rectangular noise barriers and the relationship between the scale and the full scale are established considering the modeling scale ratio.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze the impact of directors’ and officers’ (D&O) liability insurance on enterprise strategic change. It also explores the mediating role of litigation risk, the moderating roles of enterprise science and technology level and precipitation organizational slack between them. In addition, it examines the joint moderating roles of the top management team (TMT) external social network and enterprise science and technology level, and enterprise scale and precipitation organizational slack.

Using the unbalanced panel data of A-share listed companies in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges of China from 2002 to 2020 as the research sample, this paper uses the ordinary least square method and fixed-effect model to study the relationship between D&O liability insurance and enterprise strategic change. The study also focuses on the mediating mechanism and moderating mechanisms between them.

The authors find that D&O liability insurance has an “incentive effect,” which can significantly promote enterprise strategic change. Litigation risk plays a partial mediating role between D&O liability insurance and enterprise strategic change. Enterprise science and technology level and precipitation organizational slack negatively moderate the relationship between D&O liability insurance and enterprise strategic change. TMT external social network and enterprise science and technology level, and enterprise-scale and precipitation organizational slack have joint moderating effects on the relationship between D&O liability insurance and enterprise strategic change.

This paper confirms the “incentive effect hypothesis” of the impact of D&O liability insurance on enterprise strategic change, which not only broadens the research perspective of enterprise strategic management but also further expands the research scope of D&O liability insurance. Besides, this paper thoroughly explores the influencing mechanisms between D&O liability insurance and enterprise strategic change, providing incremental contributions to the research literature in the field of enterprise risk management and corporate governance. The findings have practical guiding significance for expanding the coverage of D&O liability insurance, promoting the implementation of strategic changes and improving the level of corporate governance of Chinese enterprises.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of NaCl solution with different concentrations on impact-sliding fretting corrosion behavior of Inconel 690TT steam generator heat transfer tubes.

The optical 3D profiler was used to measure the wear profile and calculated the wear volume. Corrosion behavior was studied using open circuit potential monitoring and potentiodynamic polarization testing. The morphologies and elemental distributions of wear scars were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive spectroscopy. The synergism of wear and corrosion was analyzed according to the ASTM G119 standard.

The corrosion tendency reflected by OCP and the corrosion current calculated by Tafel both increased with the increase of NaCl concentration. The total volume loss of the material increased with concentration, and it was known from the synergism that the volume loss caused by corrosion-enhanced wear accounted for the largest proportion, while the wear-enhanced corrosion also made a greater contribution to volume loss than tangential fretting corrosion. Through the analysis of the material morphologies and synergism of wear and corrosion, the damage mechanism was elucidated.

The research findings can provide reference for impact-sliding fretting corrosion behavior of Inconel 690TT heat transfer tubes in NaCl solution with different concentrations.

This paper examines the impact of corporate digital transformation on employee satisfaction. Therefore, this study extends our understanding of the economic consequences of corporate digital transformation from employees’ perspectives.

The data used to construct our main proxy of employee satisfaction are collected from Kanzhun.com, which provides reviews by rank-and-file employees on their employers. This study uses a large sample of Chinese firms and adopts various empirical methods to examine the impact of digital transformation on employee satisfaction.

We find a significant positive relationship between corporate digital transformation and employee satisfaction. Moreover, we document that the relationship between corporate digital transformation and employee satisfaction is more pronounced in firms with higher labor intensity and in state-owned enterprises (SOE).

One significant limitation is that corporate digital transformation is constructed based on word frequency analysis. This approach may be influenced by variations in corporate disclosure practices and might not accurately capture the true extent of corporate digital transformation. This limitation is not only present in our research but is also pervasive in many other studies that utilize similar methodologies. Therefore, our results should be interpreted with this caveat in mind.

Our study suggests that corporate digital transformation enhances employee satisfaction, providing direct evidence for managers and regulators to promote corporate digital transformation. Through digital transformation, companies can not only improve operational efficiency but also foster employee satisfaction. This dual benefit underscores the importance of investing in corporate digital transformation for long-term success.

Our study suggests that corporate digital transformation enhances employee satisfaction, providing direct evidence for managers and regulators to promote corporate digital transformation. Through digital transformation, companies can not only improve operational efficiency but also foster employee satisfaction. This dual benefit underscores the importance of investing in corporate digital transformation for long-term success.

Our study contributes to the literature on the economic consequences of corporate digital transformation and extends existing research on the determinants of employee satisfaction. Additionally, it provides a novel measurement of employee satisfaction for a large sample of Chinese firms.

Based on the strong feature representation ability of the convolutional neural network (CNN), generous object detection methods in remote sensing (RS) have been proposed one after another. However, due to the large variation in scale and the omission of relevant relationships between objects, there are still great challenges for object detection in RS. Most object detection methods fail to take the difficulties of detecting small and medium-sized objects and global context into account. Moreover, inference time and lightness are also major pain points in the field of RS.

To alleviate the aforementioned problems, this study proposes a novel method for object detection in RS, which is called lightweight object detection with a multi-receptive field and long-range dependency in RS images (MFLD). The multi-receptive field extraction (MRFE) and long-range dependency information extraction (LDIE) modules are put forward.

To concentrate on the variability of objects in RS, MRFE effectively expands the receptive field by a combination of atrous separable convolutions with different dilated rates. Considering the shortcomings of CNN in extracting global information, LDIE is designed to capture the relationships between objects. Extensive experiments over public datasets in RS images demonstrate that our MFLD method surpasses the state-of-the-art methods. Most of all, on the NWPU VHR-10 dataset, our MFLD method achieves 94.6% mean average precision with 4.08 M model volume.

This paper proposed a method called lightweight object detection with multi-receptive field and long-range dependency in RS images.