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The purpose of this paper is to develop a multi-agent-based simulation model for the online opinion dissemination during hazardous chemical leakage emergencies into rivers in China, to explore an appropriate crisis information release policy of China’s government for controlling public panic.

In the proposed model, two fundamental attributes of crisis information, i.e., truthfulness (for true or false news) and attitude (for positive, neutral or negative opinion), are considered. Four major agents in the online community system, i.e., citizens, the government, media and opinion leaders, are included. Using four typical accidents of hazardous chemical leakage into rivers in China as case studies, insightful policy implications can be obtained for crisis management and panic control.

The news about the terrible potential damages from such a type of accidents will instantly arise wide-ranging public panic; therefore, the corresponding crisis information release policy should be carefully designed. It is strongly advised against publishing false news to temporarily conceal the accidents, which will seriously hurt the government’s reputation and agitate much larger-scale public panic in terms of degree and duration. To mitigate public panic, the true news especially about treatment measurements should be published immediately. If the government does nothing and releases no crisis information, the public panic will go out of control.

This paper only focuses on the crisis information release policies from the perspectives of the government. Furthermore, this study especially focuses on the cases in China, and extending the proposed model study for general contexts is an important direction to improve this study. Finally, the proposed model should be extended to other types of emergencies to further justify its generalization and universality, especially various natural catastrophes like storms, floods, tsunamis, etc.

This paper develops a multi-agent-based model for online public opinion dissemination in emergency to explore an appropriate crisis information release policy for controlling public panic stemming from hazardous chemicals leakage accidents into rivers. The proposed model makes major contributions to the literature from two perspectives. First, the crisis information about emergency accidents are divided into true and false news based on the truthfulness attribute, and into neutral, positive and negative emotions based on the attitude attribute. Second, the proposed model covers the main agents in the online virtual community.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze whether and how managerial overconfidence affects stock price crash risk.

Based on a large sample of Chinese non-state-owned firms from 2000 to 2012, this study employs methods including multiple linear regression model, Heckman two-stage treatment effect procedure, firm fixed effects model and event study to clarify the causality relationship between managerial overconfidence and crash risk.

The authors find that firms with overconfident managers (chief executive officer or board chairs) are more likely to experience future stock price crashes than firms with non-overconfident managers. The effect of overconfidence on crash risk is more pronounced for firms with low transparency, suggesting that firm opacity facilitates overconfident managers’ bad news hoarding activities, which, in turn, increases stock price crash risk. The authors also show evidence that overconfident managers tend to disclose good news in a timely manner.

The authors add to the growing literature on stock price crash risk. Specifically, the authors find that the cognitive bias of board chair plays an important role in the bad news hoarding activities, thereby increasing the likelihood of stock price crash. This study also contributes to the literature that addresses the effects of managerial overconfidence on corporate finance issues.

This study proposes a model of online purchase intentions. Four exogenous constructs – namely, personal awareness of security, personal innovativeness, perceived ease of purchasing, and perceived usefulness – have not only direct influences on attitudes and online purchase intentions, but also have indirect influences on online purchase intentions through the mediation of attitudes.

Data were collected via questionnaires from customers of the leading internet service provider (ISP) in Taiwan. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the model.

The influences of personal innovativeness and perceived usefulness on attitudes and online purchase intentions are similar for males and females. The influences of personal awareness of security on both attitudes and online purchase intentions are strong for males, while no such effects exist for females. The influences of perceived ease of purchasing on both attitudes and online purchase intentions are stronger for females than for males.

There are several limitations. For example, there may exist common method variance, and the generalisability of the findings might be limited. Besides, this study is using only one product category, and customers' online purchase intentions may be only partially reflected due to the investigation of self‐reports.

By learning gender differences, e‐tailers and advertisers can better target right consumers and consequently foster more positive attitudes and online purchase intentions.

This study presents a thorough understanding on a model of online purchase intentions, and how gender moderates several paths of the model.

A new aid to design for assembly, just launched by Lucas Engineering & Systems, aims to set the design on the right path before too much has been invested.

Facing the diverse needs of large-scale customers, based on available railway service resources and service capabilities, this paper aims to research the design method of railway freight service portfolio, select optimal service solutions and provide customers with comprehensive and customized freight services.

Based on the characteristics of railway freight services throughout the entire process, the service system is decomposed into independent units of service functions, and a railway freight service combination model is constructed with the goal of minimizing response time, service cost and service time. A model solving algorithm based on adaptive genetic algorithm is proposed.

Using the computational model, an empirical analysis was conducted on the entire process freight service plan for starch sold from Xi'an to Chengdu as an example. The results showed that the proposed optimization model and algorithm can effectively guide the design of freight plans and provide technical support for real-time response to customers' diversified entire process freight service needs.

With the continuous optimization and upgrading of railway freight source structure, customer demands are becoming increasingly diverse and personalized. Studying and designing a reasonable railway freight service plan throughout the entire process is of great significance for timely response to customer needs, improving service efficiency and reducing design costs.

This study aims to explore the dissemination and evolutionary path of online public opinion from a crisis management perspective. By clarifying the influencing factors and dynamic mechanisms of online public opinion dissemination, this study provides insights into attenuating the negative impact of online public opinion and creating a favorable ecological space for online public opinion.

This research employs bibliometric analysis and CiteSpace software to analyze 302 Chinese articles published from 2006 to 2023 in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database and 276 English articles published from 1994 to 2023 in the Web of Science core set database. Through literature keyword clustering, co-citation analysis and burst terms analysis, this paper summarizes the core scientific research institutions, scholars, hot topics and evolutionary paths of online public opinion crisis management research from both Chinese and international academic communities.

The results show that the study of online public opinion crisis management in China and internationally is centered on the life cycle theory, which integrates knowledge from information, computer and system sciences. Although there are differences in political interaction and stage evolution, the overall evolutionary path is similar, and it develops dynamically in the “benign conflict” between the expansion of the research perspective and the gradual refinement of research granularity.

This study summarizes the research results of online public opinion crisis management from China and the international academic community and identifies current research hotspots and theoretical evolution paths. Future research can focus on deepening the basic theories of public opinion crisis management under the influence of frontier technologies, exploring the subjectivity and emotionality of web users using fine algorithms and promoting the international development of network public opinion crisis management theory through transnational comparison and international cooperation.

This study aims to investigate the effects of COVID-19 working arrangements on role stress, burnout and turnover intentions in public accounting professionals. Additionally, while all professionals have had to adapt to this rapid change in working environment, this paper explores whether the impact of this transition differs depending on demographic factors, namely, rank, gender, firm size and service line.

The authors survey 159 public accountants working in audit and tax on their perceptions of role stress, burnout and turnover intentions before COVID-19 and since. The survey used validated instruments from prior literature to capture these measures.

Results show that role stress, burnout and turnover intentions increased significantly since remote work began. Specifically, the rank of accountants significantly affects this association, with staff experiencing the most significant increases in role stress and burnout and seniors reporting significantly higher intentions to leave their current firms. Females experience a significant increase in feelings of emotional exhaustion and turnover intention, while males experience a significant increase in feelings of depersonalization and role overload. Finally, there is a positive association between firm size and burnout, with employees from national/midsize firms experiencing the largest increase in feelings of emotional exhaustion, reduced personal accomplishment and depersonalization.

Given that all prior research on role stressors, burnout tendencies and turnover intentions in the context of public accounting was conducted in the pre-COVID-19 work environment, this paper examines a timely and significant event that is likely to have a long-lasting impact on the way in which people work. As accounting firms seek to develop new working models and promote well-being among their employees, they should take note of the findings of this study that gender, rank and firm size result in differential impacts on role stress, burnout and turnover intentions.

This empirical study aims to examine two areas: first, the characteristics of the audit committee and their relationship with corporate financial crime so as to ensure that their effectiveness as a corporate governance mechanism is still relevant; and second, the effectiveness of having a risk committee which is separated from the audit committee in the prevention of corporate financial crime.

This empirical research was carried out by using a Web-based data collection for corporate financial crime cases.

While the results for audit committee characteristics are not supported, the findings, however, indicate a significant relationship between the existence of a stand-alone risk committee with corporate financial crime incidences.

The result of the study serves as an empirical indicator of a firm’s consideration in deciding on the implementation of a stand-alone risk committee from its audit committee.

Both the descriptive and correlation analyses produced by this paper provide new insights into the extent of corporate financial crime, as well as the empirical evidence of the effectiveness of having a stand-alone risk committee.

Injecting drug use is a global concern, with an estimated 16 million people who inject drugs (PWIDs) in over 148 countries. A number of Asian countries detain PWIDs for compulsory treatment. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The authors reviewed the literature on compulsory drug treatment in seven Asian countries.

The authors identified 1,269 closed settings which held over 600,000 drug users in eight countries. The average detainee was aged from 20 to 30 years and was predominantly male. HIV risk behaviour continued in detention in some countries. In most countries treatment comprised physical labour, military drills. Methadone maintenance treatment and antiretroviral therapy were rarely available. No data were located to show detention in a closed setting treated drug dependency. Issues of concern were; no due legal process for the detention of drug users, lack of evidence-based drug treatment, lack of HIV prevention and treatment, abusive conditions, forced labour and exercise, arbitrary exit procedures and very high relapse rates.

The review of compulsory treatment of drug users failed to find any evaluation of effective drug treatment for detainees. Instead serious breaches in human rights conditions were evident. Prominent international organisations have called for the compulsory treatment of drug users to cease.

Many countries are spending vast amounts of funding on ineffective treatments for drug users.

Funding should be directed to community-based drug treatments that have been shown to work.

This is the largest review of compulsory treatment of drug users to date.

This article conducts a thorough review and synthesis of the empirical research on the antecedents of stock price crash risk to ascertain the macro-, meso- and micro-level determinants contributing to stock price crashes.

The authors systematically reviewed 85 empirical papers published in ABS-ranked journals to assess the macro-, meso- and micro-level determinants causing stock price crashes.

The findings indicate that macroeconomic factors such as corporate governance, political and legal factors, socioeconomic indicators and religious beliefs have an effect on firm-level corporate behavior contributing to stock price crash risk. At a meso-level customer concentration, industry-level characteristics, media coverage, structural features of ownership and behavioral factors have a substantial effect on stock price crash risk. Finally, micro-level variables influencing stock market crash risk include CEO qualities and compensation, business policies, earnings management, financial transparency, managerial characteristics and firm-specific variables.

Based on our analysis we identify priority areas for future research.

This is a seminal work using a multilevel framework to categorize the determinants of stock price crashes into micro-, meso- and macro-level factors.