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The paper debunks Peter P. Li’s assertion that Yin-Yang is superior to any other cognitive frames or logical systems for paradox research. The purpose of this paper is to alert the Chinese indigenous management researchers to the danger of Chinese exceptionalism and over-confidence.

To show that Peter P. Li’s assertion is doubtful, the authors identify the flaws in his analysis.

The authors find that there are three serious flaws in Peter P. Li’s analysis. First, there are four defects in the typology of cognitive frames he built in order to compare Yin-Yang with the others. Second, his understanding of dialectics in general and Hegelian dialectics in particular is flawed. And finally, without resorting to Yin-Yang, many scholars can develop theories that are equivalent to those derived from Yin-Yang.

Due to the page limit, this paper only focuses on arguing that Yin-Yang is not superior to other cognitive frames or logical systems without going one step further to explain in which situations Yin-Yang are valuable and might be more suitable than others for helping us understand some research issues.

This paper implies that we should not blindly believe that the Chinese way of thinking and acting is superior to other people’s. Chinese people should be open-minded in the globalized era, not only promoting their own culture but also appreciating and learning from other cultures.

The reduction of cultural exceptionalism and ethnocentrism can make cross-cultural communication and interaction smoother.

This paper is a rigorous critique on the “Yin-Yang being superior” assertion of Peter P. Li.

In studies related to education, sociology and economics, the relationship between students’ social relationships and their academic performance is one of the most important research topics; a large number of research studies have focused on it. This study aims to analyze the previous studies about social interaction and academic performance and attempts to reveal the underlying mechanism.

This study uses CiteSpace to analyze 1,843 articles on social relationships and academic performance from 2001 to 2019. According to the co-cited literature network results in CiteSpace, this study proposes an adapted conceptual framework of the relationship between social relationships and academic performance. This paper further examines more studies about the two most-cited articles in the co-cited literature network for better understanding.

From the results of the co-cited literature network, this study determines that school engagement is an important mediator between social relationships and academic performance. This paper further examines studies on school engagement and determine that, along with the self-determination theory, school engagement is influenced by multiple components of self-determination theory: autonomy, competence and relatedness.

According to the visual result in CiteSpace, this study examines a research trend in which researchers scholars start to conduct micro and detailed empirical research on the impact of the specific social networks on academic performance because of the progress of information technology. Therefore, based on the previous literature that we have analyzed, this study predicts that the trend of using information technology, such as data mining or data analysis, in this academic field will become a mainstream practice in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to comment on Peter Ping Li’s understanding of Zhong-Yong balancing, presented in his article titled “Global implications of the indigenous epistemological system from the East: How to apply Yin-Yang balancing to paradox management.” Seeing his understanding of Zhong-Yong balancing being incorrect and incomplete, the author proposes an alternative perspective on Zhong-Yong as dynamic balancing between Yin-Yang opposites.

The author first explain why Peter P. Li’s “asymmetry” and “superiority” arguments are flawed by referring to the original text of the classical book of Zhong-Yong (中庸) and a comparison between Zhong-Yong and Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean. The author then propose an alternative approach to Zhong-Yong balancing that is embedded in the original text Zhong-Yong but somehow has been neglected by many Chinese scholars. The author concludes the commentary by unifying the two alternative approaches to Zhong-Yong balancing under the inclusion-selection-promotion-transition (ISPT) framework of Zhong-Yong balancing.

There are three main findings. First, as the original text of Zhong-Yong does not prescribe asymmetry, Peter P. Li’s notion of “Yin-Yang balancing” is ironically unbalanced or anti-Zhong-Yong due to his emphasis on asymmetry to the exclusion of symmetry. Second, due to the equivalency between Zhong-Yong and Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean, Peter P. Li’s assertion that “Yin-Yang balancing” is superior as a solution to paradox management is flawed. Third, his “Yin-Yang balancing” solution is only (the less sophisticated) one of two alternative approaches to Zhong-Yong balancing, i.e., ratio-based combination of Yin-Yang opposites. What Peter P. Li and many other Chinese have neglected is another approach to Zhong-Yong that is embedded in the original text of Zhong-Yong, which I call “analysis plus synthesis.”

As it is a commentary there are no specific limitations except for what can be covered in the space available.

The “analysis plus synthesis” approach to Zhong-Yong can be adopted by practitioners who are demanded to balance between opposite forces in daily life and work.

The rejection of the “Yin-Yang balancing being superior” assertion facilitates reduction of friction and non-cooperation between intellectual traditions.

This commentary contributes to the “West meets East” discourse by debunking Peter P. Li’s assertion that Yin-Yang balancing is superior as a solution to paradox management and his prescription that balancing between Yin-Yang opposites must be asymmetric. It also contributes to the Chinese indigenous management research by identifying a largely neglected approach to Zhong-Yong balancing (i.e. “analysis plus synthesis”) that is alternative to the commonly understood ratio-based combination approach (e.g. “Yin-Yang balancing”). In addition, it contributes to the management literature by proposing the ISPT framework of Zhong-Yong balancing.

This paper investigates how to embrace an “either/and” logic, borrowed from the Yin-Yang epistemological system, to provide a different perspective to the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) research and reframe its paradoxes and dilemmas.

The study adopts the duality map for paradox management, a tool designed to recognize and measure the threshold as a range within which opposite elements can be properly balanced for a healthy tension, to show that the apparently contradictory poles of the EO construct can co-exist within the same organization depending on specific situations, contexts and time.

By using duality maps as working models, the study shows that, in real life, the apparently contradictory poles of the EO construct co-exist in a healthy tension within the same organization and are managed in a constant process of dynamic balancing over time.

The present paper contributes to the EO research by providing a different perspective to the EO concept, thus filling the gap on how to go beyond the traditional polarized (“either/or”) paradigm that has dominated the EO literature since its origins.

EO is dominated by a polarized view that sees opposites as sharp dichotomies. However, the complexity and variability of today’s interconnected world are pushing scholars to move from this hegemonic Western perspective by adopting different cultural and philosophical approaches able to balance the inherent duality of the EO concept.

To achieve proper waste management, the disposal of electronic waste (e-waste) is one suitable method. Most developing countries, including Malaysia, are facing lack of e-waste recycling facilities and low household participation. Using a survey method using a questionnaire, this study aims to examine the intention of Malaysian households to drop-off their mobile phones to the nearest collection boxes (n = 600).

This study expanded the theory of planned behavior by adding environmental awareness and knowledge. In addition, the cost of disposal and the convenience of the available disposal infrastructure were measured as two parts of the perceived behavioral control.

The results of this study show that environmental knowledge and awareness have a significant impact on attitudes toward recycling intention of the households. In addition, it was also found that the attitude and cost of disposal infrastructure is positively related to household intention.

These results show that if e-waste collection boxes are provided to the nearest community and e-waste management information is distributed, this will increase household participation in e-waste management.

Research on grey systems is becoming more sophisticated, and grey relational and prediction analyses are receiving close review worldwide. Particularly, the application of grey systems in marine economics is gaining importance. The purpose of this paper is to summarize and review literature on grey models, providing new directions in their application in the marine economy.

This paper organized seminal studies on grey systems published by Chinese core journal database – CNKI, Web of Science and Elsevier from 1982 to 2018. After searching the aforementioned database for the said duration, the authors used the CiteSpace visualization tools to analyze them.

The authors sorted the studies according to their countries/regions, institutions, keywords and categories using the CiteSpace tool; analyzed current research characteristics on grey models; and discussed their possible applications in marine businesses, economy, scientific research and education, marine environment and disasters. Finally, the authors pointed out the development trend of grey models.

Although researches are combining grey theory with fractals, neural networks, fuzzy theory and other methods, the applications, in terms of scope, have still not met the demand. With the increasingly in-depth research in marine economics and management, international marine economic research has entered a new period of development. Grey theory will certainly attract scholars’ attention, and its role in marine economy and management will gain considerable significance.

Since 2000, China, along with the USA, UK, France, Japan and many other developed countries have drawn up new blueprints for the development of a marine economy. At present, international marine economics research has entered into a new period of development, and the research methods of ocean econometrics are becoming more complex and mature. The purpose of this paper is to review the progress of international marine econometrics research and gives the development direction of marine econometrics.

The Web of Science core collection database was utilized, harvesting data from 1996 to May 2018, measuring the marine economy research from 1,489 articles as its sample, using CiteSpace visualization analysis tools.

Mapping the knowledge map from annual international marine economic metrology, literature identification, keywords, involving disciplines and related journals, countries (regions) and research and analyzing the research status of reveals the research frontiers of international marine economy measurement (learning) by using CiteSpace.

The conceptions and characteristics of marine econometrics are defined and analyzed, and the theoretical method of marine econometrics is sorted out. Mapping the knowledge diagram of marine econometrics and discussing the research status of international marine economics, and clarifying the existing problems, future opportunities and challenges of international marine econometrics research.

Cloud Manufacturing (CM) is the manufacturing version of Cloud Computing and aims to increase flexibility in the provision of manufacturing services. On-demand manufacturing services can be requested by users to the cloud and this enables the concept of Manufacturing-as-a-Service (MaaS). Given the considerable number of prototypes and proofs of concept addressed in literature, this work seeks real CM platforms to study them from a business perspective, in order to discover what MaaS concretely means today and how these platforms are operating.

Since the number of real applications of this paradigm is very limited (if the authors exclude prototypes), the research approach is qualitative. The paper presents a multiple-case analysis of 6 different platforms operating in the manufacturing field today. It is based on empirical data and inductively researches differences among them (e.g. stakeholders, operational flows, capabilities offered and scalability level).

MaaS has come true in some contexts, and today it is following two different deployment models: open or closed to the provider side. The open architecture is inspired by a truly open platform which allows any company to be part of the pool of service providers, while the closed architecture is limited to a single service provider of the manufacturing services, as it happens in most cloud computing services.

The research shoots a picture of what MaaS offers today in term of capabilities, what are the deployment models and finally suggests a framework to assess different levels of development of MaaS platforms.

Degradable mulch film (DMF) is a potential alternate to polyethylene (PE) mulching. In this regard, the purpose of this paper is to explore the effects and paths of natural disaster shock and risk aversion influencing farmers’ DMF adoption.

This research is conducted by collecting cross-sectional data of corn farmers in Zhangye, China. First, by using the Tobit model, the paper attempts to explore the effects of natural disaster shock and risk aversion influencing farmers’ DMF adoption. Second, IV-Tobit model is applied to deal with endogenous problems between risk aversion and DMF adoption. Additionally, the researchers used a moderating model to analyze feasible paths of natural disaster shock and risk aversion impacting farmers’ DMF adoption.

The outcomes show that natural disaster shock and risk aversion significantly and positively affect farmers’ DMF adoption. Though risk aversion plays a significant moderating effect in influencing farmers’ DMF adoption by natural disaster shock, the moderating effect has a serious disguising effect. By considering the heterogeneity of risk aversion, the paper further confirms that if the intensity of natural disaster shock is increased by one unit, the intensity of MDF adoption by farmers with high-risk aversion also tends to increase by 15.85%.

This study is the pioneer one, which is evaluating the intensity of farmers’ DMF adoption from adoption ratio, investment amount, labor input and adoption time. Additionally, the research provides important guidelines for policymakers to motivate medium and low-risk aversion farmers to adopt DMF.

Through this research study, the authors found that digital thread has made significant progress in the life cycle management of the US Air Force. The authors hope that by reviewing similar studies in the aerospace field, the meaning of digital thread can be summarized and applied to a wider range of fields. In addition, theoretically, the definition of digital twin and digital thread are not unified. The authors hope that the comparison of digital thread and digital twin will better enable scholars to distinguish between the two concepts. Besides, the authors are also looking forward that more people will realize the significance of digital thread and carry out future research.

Complete research about digital thread and the relevant concept of the digital twin is conducted. First, by searching in Google Scholar with the keyword “digital thread”, the authors filter results and save literature with high relevance to digital thread. The authors also track these papers’ references for more paper of digital thread and digital twin. After removing the duplicate and low-relevance literature, 72 digital thread-related literature studies are saved and further analyzed from the perspective of time development, application field and research directions.

Digital thread application in industries other than the aviation manufacturing industry is still relatively few, and the research on the application of digital thread in real industrial scenarios is mainly at the stage of framework design and design-side decision optimization. In addition, the digital thread needs a new management mechanism and organizational structure to realize landing. The new management mechanism and the process can adapt to the whole life cycle management process based on the digital thread, manage the data security and data update, and promote the digital thread to play a better effect on the organizational management.

Based on a review of digital thread, future research directions and usage suggestions are given. The fault diagnosis of high-speed train bogie as an example shows the effectiveness of the method and also partially demonstrates the advantages and effects brought by the digital thread connecting the data models at various stages.

This paper first investigates and analyzes the theoretical connotation and research progress of digital thread and gives a complete definition of digital thread from the perspective of the combination of digital thread and digital twins. Next, the research process of digital thread is reviewed, and the application fields, research directions and achievements in recent years are summarized. Finally, taking the fault diagnosis of high-speed train bogie as an example partially demonstrates the advantages and effects brought by the digital thread connecting the data models at various stages.