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This study aims to examine how business executives' political connections are associated with government subsidies and strategic change, and how they, in turn, influence firm performance, measured by return on assets (ROA) and market share.

Hypotheses were tested using the large firm-level dataset provided by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of China for the period 2003–2013. This is one of the most comprehensive datasets of Chinese manufacturing companies and includes 321,722 firms on average per year, which spans over 37 industries.

The authors found that political connections, measured by senior executives' membership in the National People's Congress of China (NPC), were positively associated with government subsidies but were not associated with strategic change. Also, government subsidies, as the underlying mechanism, mediated the relationships between NPC membership and firm performance but strategic change did not.

By examining the possible mediators between corporate political strategies and firm performance, the authors confirmed the thought that the impact of political connections on firm performance is a complex phenomenon and goes beyond a simple direct effect. However, future research could explore other mediators in this relationship.

While the direct relationship between political connections and firm performance has been examined in management literature, the results are mixed. For the first time, the authors addressed the gap and opened the “black box” – the underlying mechanisms of this relationship. This study's findings contribute to the literature on corporate political activity, strategic change, and their influences on firm performance.

The aim of the work is to investigate structural behaviour of reinforced concrete (RF) beam retrofitted with basalt fibre (BF) fabric. The incorporation of BF showed enhancement in bending strength, to increase confinement and to repair damages caused by cracking. In the early decades, using BF for composite materials shaped BF as an excellent physical substance with necessary mechanical properties, highlighting the significant procedures ability.

Specimens were casted with U-wrapped BF and then evaluated based on flexural tests. In the test carried over for flexural fortifying assessment, BF reinforcements demonstrated a definitive quality improvement in the case of the subjected control sample; ultimately, the end impacts depend upon the applied test parameters. From the outcomes introduced in this comparison, for the double-wrapped sample, the modifications improved by 12% than that of the single-wrapped beam, which is identified to subsist for a better strengthening of new-age retrofitting designs.

The current research deals with the retrofitting of RC beam by conducting a comparative experiment on wrapping of BF (single or double BF wrapping) in improving the mechanical behavior of concrete.

It can be shown from the experimental results that increasing the number of layers has significant effect on basalt strengthened beams.

As a sociotechnical system, the metaverse has sparked heated discussion. However, concerns abound that the concept is “old wine in a new bottle” used for capital hype. The mixed definitions of the metaverse and unclear relationships between its technical features and user behaviors have greatly impeded its design and application. Therefore, the authors aim to sort out the metaverse definition and properties, analyze its technical features in various contexts and unveil the mechanisms leading to user behaviors.

The authors conduct a literature review on the definition, technical features and user behaviors of/in the metaverse.

First, the authors identify two main categories of the metaverse definition and find a mixed conceptualization. Second, the authors present technologies and technical features in the diverse contexts of the metaverse. Third, the authors summarize the effect of technical features on user behaviors from a sociotechnical perspective.

The authors analyze the definition, technical features, user behaviors of the metaverse and their theoretical foundations. Based on these findings, the authors propose a theoretical framework unveiling how social and technical elements affect user behaviors in the metaverse. In conclusion, the study offers a research agenda for future studies.

Data-driven marketing is replacing conventional marketing strategies. The modern marketing strategy is based on insights derived from customer behavior information gathered from their facial expressions and neuro-signals. This study explores the potential for face recognition and neuro-marketing in modern-day marketing.

The study conducts an in-depth examination of the extant literature on neuro-marketing and facial recognition marketing. The articles for review are downloaded from the Scopus database, and PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) is then used to screen and choose the relevant papers. The systematic literature review method is applied to conduct the study.

An extensive review of the literature reveals that the domains of neuro-marketing and face recognition marketing remain understudied. The authors’ review of selected papers delivers five neuro-marketing and facial recognition marketing themes that are essential to modern marketing concepts.

Neuro-marketing and facial recognition marketing are artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled marketing techniques that assist in gaining cognitive insights into human behavior. The findings would be of use to managers in designing marketing strategies to enhance their marketing approach and boost conversion rates.

The uniqueness of this study lies in that it provides an updated review on neuro-marketing and face recognition marketing.

This study examines the impact of China’s mixed-ownership reform on the innovation of non-state-owned acquirers, with a particular focus on the impact on firms with high financing constraints, low-quality accounting information or less tangible assets.

We use a proprietary dataset of firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges to investigate the impact of mixed ownership reform on non-state-owned enterprise (non-SOE) innovation. We employ regression analysis to examine the association between mixed ownership reform and firm innovation.

The study finds that non-state-owned firms can improve innovation by acquiring equity in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) under the reform. Eased financing constraints, lowered financing costs, better access to tax incentives or government subsidies, lowered agency costs, better accounting information quality and more credit loans are underlying the impact. Additionally, cross-ownership connections amongst non-SOE executives and government intervention strengthen the impact, whilst regional marketisation weakens it.

This study adds to the literature on the association between mixed ownership reform and firm innovation by focussing on the conditions under which this impact is stronger. It also sheds light on the policy implications for SOE reforms in emerging economies.

This review aims to give a critical view of the wheel/rail high frequency vibration-induced vibration fatigue in railway bogie.

Vibration fatigue of railway bogie arising from the wheel/rail high frequency vibration has become the main concern of railway operators. Previous reviews usually focused on the formation mechanism of wheel/rail high frequency vibration. This paper thus gives a critical review of the vibration fatigue of railway bogie owing to the short-pitch irregularities-induced high frequency vibration, including a brief introduction of short-pitch irregularities, associated high frequency vibration in railway bogie, typical vibration fatigue failure cases of railway bogie and methodologies used for the assessment of vibration fatigue and research gaps.

The results showed that the resulting excitation frequencies of short-pitch irregularity vary substantially due to different track types and formation mechanisms. The axle box-mounted components are much more vulnerable to vibration fatigue compared with other components. The wheel polygonal wear and rail corrugation-induced high frequency vibration is the main driving force of fatigue failure, and the fatigue crack usually initiates from the defect of the weld seam. Vibration spectrum for attachments of railway bogie defined in the standard underestimates the vibration level arising from the short-pitch irregularities. The current investigations on vibration fatigue mainly focus on the methods to improve the accuracy of fatigue damage assessment, and a systematical design method for vibration fatigue remains a huge gap to improve the survival probability when the rail vehicle is subjected to vibration fatigue.

The research can facilitate the development of a new methodology to improve the fatigue life of railway vehicles when subjected to wheel/rail high frequency vibration.

This paper aims to disentangle Chinese-English-rich resources linguistic and speaker timbre features, achieving cross-lingual speaker transfer for Cambodian.

This study introduces a novel approach: the construction of a cross-lingual feature disentangler coupled with the integration of time-frequency attention adaptive normalization to proficiently convert Cambodian speaker timbre into Chinese-English without altering the underlying Cambodian speech content.

Considering the limited availability of multi-speaker corpora in Cambodia, conventional methods have demonstrated subpar performance in Cambodian speaker voice transfer.

The originality of this study lies in the effectiveness of the disentanglement process and precise control over speaker timbre feature transfer.

In light of the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theoretical paradigm, this paper explores how information relevance and media richness affect social network exhaustion and, moreover, how social network exhaustion ultimately leads to health anxiety and COVID-19-related stress.

The conceptual model is explicitly analyzed and estimated by using data from 309 individuals of different ages in mainland China. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were utilized to validate the proposed hypotheses through the use of online data.

The findings suggest that information relevance is negatively associated with social network exhaustion. In addition, social network exhaustion is a significant predictor of health anxiety and stress. Furthermore, information relevance and media richness can indirectly influence health anxiety and stress through the mediating effect of social network exhaustion.

Theoretically, this paper verifies the causes and consequences of social network exhaustion during COVID-19, thus making a significant contribution to the theoretical construction and refinement of this emerging research area. Practically, the conceptual research model in this paper may provide inspiration for more investigators and scholars who are inclined to further explore the different dimensions of social network exhaustion by utilizing other variables.

Although social network exhaustion and its adverse consequences have become prevalent, relatively few empirical studies have addressed the deleterious effects of social network exhaustion on mobile social media users’ psychosocial well-being and mental health during the prolonged COVID-19. These findings have important theoretical and practical implications for the rational development and construction of mobile social technologies to cultivate proper health awareness and mindset during the ongoing worldwide COVID-19 epidemic.

This study investigated what are the effective leadership styles and practices that boost employees’ work outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of facilities management professionals (FMPs).

Three predominant leadership styles (transformational, transactional contingent reward and disaster management) were operationalized into 38 leadership practices (X variables) and 8 work outcomes (Y variables). The explanatory sequential research design was adopted. Online questionnaire survey was first conducted on FMPs who managed facilities during the critical periods of COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore. In-depth interviews were then carried out with subject matter experts to elaborate on the quantitative findings.

During the pandemic, FMPs were significantly stressed at work, but also experienced significant job satisfaction and satisfaction with their leaders/supervisors. Statistical results revealed a range of leadership practices that are significantly correlated with FMPs’ work outcomes. One leadership practice is critical as it affects 4 of the 8 FMPs’ work outcomes - frequently acknowledging employees’ good performance during the pandemic.

The study explored 3 leadership styles. There are other styles like laissez faire and servant leadership that might also affect work outcomes.

Based on the findings, suggestions were provided to organizations that employ FMPs on how to improve their work outcomes during a crisis such as a pandemic.

The novelty is the discovery that in the context of a global disaster such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the most relevant leadership styles to boost employees’ work outcomes are transactional contingent reward and disaster management leadership. The study adds to knowledge by showing that not one leadership style is superior – all 3 styles are complementary, but distinct, forms of leadership that need to work in tandem to boost FMPs’ work outcomes during a crisis such as a pandemic.

The introduction of digitalisation in the shipping industry has fundamentally transformed traditional business models. This necessitates an investigation of its impact on customer satisfaction. This study aims to adapt the technology acceptance model in its survey instrument design to understand and evaluate customer satisfaction of shipping lines’ digital platforms.

This study used a mixed-methods approach, incorporating quantitative and qualitative research techniques. Primary data were collected through an online survey designed to measure customer satisfaction in relation to the digitalisation initiatives implemented by the shipping lines. Survey respondents comprised professionals who were online platform users, particularly in the instant spot quotation process and blockchain bill of lading.

The results for both instant spot quotation process and blockchain bill of lading revealed digital trust to be the most influential determinant of customer satisfaction, followed by perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. There was also a very strong correlation between perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness as well as between digital trust and perceived ease of use. The managerial implications of digitalisation are also discussed.

The adoption of digital tools is gaining traction in the container shipping sector, and there exists a need to investigate the correlation between digitalisation and customer satisfaction. This study offers significant insights to stakeholders in the shipping industry, particularly in designing and implementing user-friendly digital platforms.