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Although entrepreneurial learning is widely believed as an important factor in shaping one’s entrepreneurial intention, research finds little consistent results on the direct effect of entrepreneurial learning on one’s entrepreneurial intention. To solve the conflicted effects of entrepreneurial learning, the purpose of this paper is to explore how entrepreneurial learning may impact individual entrepreneurial intention.

Drawing on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the authors proposed and tested on a three mediating effect model, in which entrepreneurial learning is associated with entrepreneurial intention through attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control toward entrepreneurship. Moreover, the moderating role of prior exposure to entrepreneurship was proposed and tested. Based on a sample of 200 university students who have taken entrepreneurial courses in Hong Kong, the hierarchical regressions and moderated mediation tests were used to test the hypotheses.

The authors find that the positive relationship between entrepreneurial learning and entrepreneurial intention is significantly mediated by attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control toward entrepreneurship; and the mediating effects of entrepreneurial learning on entrepreneurial intention via attitudes and perceived behavioral control respectively, is moderated by exposure to entrepreneurship.

Contributing to the literature of entrepreneurship education, this study identifies individuals who exposed to the same entrepreneurship education may perform differently in entrepreneurial learning. The findings also help us to better understand the mechanism through which and under which context one’s entrepreneurial learning may enhance his/her entrepreneurial intention.

Whether shareholders’ involvement in management benefits the organization’s performance remains inconclusive. The purpose of this study is to reconcile the conflicting results by exploring whether and under which contexts shareholder involvement may impact firm innovation performance.

This study attempts to combine previous theoretical views (reactance and agency theories) to examine a curvilinear effect of shareholder involvement on firm innovation performance based on governance related to cost-benefit analysis. Drawing on data from 174 Chinese manufacturing firms, the hierarchical regressions were used to test the hypotheses.

The study finds that shareholder involvement has a U-shaped relationship with firm innovation performance. Moreover, ownership incentive strengthens the U-shaped relationship, while monitoring weakens it.

Examination of the U-shaped main effect of shareholder involvement and these contingent factors further explains the mixed empirical results concerning the link between shareholder activism and firm-level performance.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship and effect of management support on individual creativity performance by focusing on the individual learning opportunity, adaptability to change and learning motivation in Hong Kong manufacturing companies.

This study is based on survey data collection by using a respondent-driven approach from 266 employees working in Hong Kong-based manufacturing firms. The model and hypotheses were tested by employing variance-based structural equation modeling.

The findings indicate that management support has a positive effect on individual learning opportunity and creativity performance. Also, a significant positive relationship between individual creativity, performance, individual learning opportunity, adaptability to change, and learning motivation has been yielded. The management support has an overall positive link with all variables directly and indirectly.

Top management can foster employee creativity by supporting and providing learning opportunities and motivating employees to develop adaptive capability at an individual level.

An empirical study of how management support can foster individual creativity performance and individual learning opportunity. This study is one of the first to examine the positive relationship between management support and individual creativity by validating a purposed model, especially in the context of the Hong Kong manufacturing industry.

The authors’ conclusions are based on mathematical derivations that are supported by computer simulations and three worked examples in applications of economics and finance. Finally, the authors provide a link to a computer program so that researchers can perform the analyses easily.

Based on a parameter estimation goal, the present work is concerned with determining the minimum sample size researchers should collect so their sample medians can be trusted as good estimates of corresponding population medians. The authors derive two solutions, using a normal approximation and an exact method.

The exact method provides more accurate answers than the normal approximation method. The authors show that the minimum sample size necessary for estimating the median using the exact method is substantially smaller than that using the normal approximation method. Therefore, researchers can use the exact method to enjoy a sample size savings.

In this paper, the a priori procedure is extended for estimating the population median under the skew normal settings. The mathematical derivation and with computer simulations of the exact method by using sample median to estimate the population median is new and a link to a free and user-friendly computer program is provided so researchers can make their own calculations.

The ecological environment of the Loess Plateau, China, is extremely fragile under the context of global warming. Over the past two decades, the vegetation of the Loess Plateau has undergone great changes. This paper aims to clarify the response mechanisms of vegetation to climate change, to provide support for the restoration and environmental treatment of vegetation on the Loess Plateau.

The Savitsky–Golay (S-G) filtering algorithm was used to reconstruct time series of moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) 13A2 data. Combined with trend analysis and partial correlation analysis, the influence of climate change on the phenology and enhanced vegetation index (EVI) during the growing season was described.

The S-G filtering algorithm is suitable for EVI reconstruction of the Loess Plateau. The date of start of growing season was found to gradually later along the Southeast–Northwest direction, whereas the date of the end of the growing season showed the opposite pattern and the length of the growing season gradually shortened. Vegetation EVI values decreased gradually from Southeast to Northwest. Vegetation changed significantly and showed clear differentiation according to different topographic factors. Vegetation correlated positively with precipitation from April to July and with temperature from August to November.

This study provides technical support for ecological environmental assessment, restoration of regional vegetation coverage and environmental governance of the Loess Plateau over the past two decades. It also provides theoretical support for the prediction model of vegetation phenology changes based on remote sensing data.

The applications of multi-agent systems (MASs) are considered to be among the most promising paradigms for detailed investigations and reliable problem-solving methods, and MAS applications make it possible for researchers and practitioners to better understand complex systems. Although a number of prior studies have been conducted to address complex issues that arise from construction projects, few studies have summarised the applications and discussed the capacity of MASs from the perspective of construction management. To fill the gap, this paper provides a comprehensive literature review of MAS applications from the perspective of construction management.

Web of Science and Scopus are the most commonly used international databases in conducting the literature reviews. A total of 86 relevant papers published in SCI-Expanded, SSCI and Ei Compendex journals related to the application of MASs from the perspective of construction management are selected to be analysed and discussed in this paper.

Based on the 86 collected publications, the utilisations of MASs to support the management of the supply chain and the improvement of project performance are identified from the perspective of construction management, the characteristics and barriers of current MAS applications are analysed, a framework for developing agent-based models to address complex problems is proposed, and future research directions of MAS applications are discussed.

This review can serve as a useful reference for scholars to enhance their understanding of the current research and guide future research on MASs. The proposed framework can help build agent-based models to address complex problems in construction management.

The purpose of this paper is to promote the theoretical innovation of socialist economics with Chinese characteristics in these areas.

We must “excavate new materials, discover new problems, propose new ideas, and construct new theories from the practice of China’s reform and development.”

Giving full play to the government’s role in realizing optimal allocation of resources required for the public economy to better exert its control, influence and guidance, and at least assume the following three responsibilities. The first is to iron out the economic cycle. The second is to lead the industry to upgrade. The third is to ensure national economic security.

Some deep-rooted issues still need to be further studied in order to establish the scientific and practical nature of the socialist economics with Chinese characteristics. For instance, why is the theory of a socialist economy with Chinese characteristics summarized from the development practice in China a scientific theory?

The National People’s Congress (NPC) of People’s Republic of China, the highest organ of state power, is popularly seen as a rubber-stamp entity. However, it has been substantially evolving its roles to accommodate the governance discourses within China’s political system over the decades. This study aims to explore the changes of governance discourse of the NPC within China’s political system through which to offer a thorough understanding of the NPC’s evolving substantial role in current China.

This study deploys a historical approach to explore the changes of governance discourse of the NPC that has seen a growing importance in China’s political agenda, as argued by this study.

The authors find that the NPC has been substantially evolving its role within China’s political system in which the Chinese Communist Party has created different governance discourses. Besides, the NPC and its Standing Committee have asserted its authority as a substantial actor within China’s political system. The NPC is no longer functioned as a rubber-stamp institution, though it is still popularized as a rubber stamp by many scholars.

This study is a historical elaboration on the development of NPC under three governance discourses. It might be, to some extent, relatively descriptive in nature.

This study, therefore, sheds some light on a revisit on the governance discourses in current China.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between authoritarian leadership, organizational citizenship behavior toward one’s supervisor (OCBS) and organizational deviance. The authors hypothesized curvilinear relationships between authoritarian leadership and OCBS, and between authoritarian leadership and organizational deviance.

The authors analyzed two-source survey data of 240 employee–supervisor dyads collected from seven organizations in Pakistan.

Employees exhibited most OCBS and least organizational deviance at intermediate levels of authoritarian leadership. Employees’ perception of a benevolent climate at work moderated the curvilinear relations.

The authors cannot draw causal inferences because of cross-sectional data. Furthermore, the authors’ results may be limited to cultures with high collectivism and high power distance.

This study envisions and illuminates a new avenue of curvilinear relationships among authoritarian leadership, OCBS and organizational deviance.

The two sources (employee–supervisor dyads) data collected from seven organizations supported a unique curvilinear relationship between authoritarian leadership, OCBS and organizational deviance.

The purpose of this study is to reduce the cracks, pores and unfused defects in arc welding, improve the crystalline structure of the weld, refine its grains and improve the mechanical properties.

Taking E690 marine steel as the research object, the experiment adopts a new process method of laser forging coupled arc welding. Welding for comparative experiments. Experiments show that the “V”-shaped groove arc welding process has a larger fusion area, but has pores, the arc current is 168 A, the arc voltage is 28 V and the welding speed is 600 mm/min.

It can be seen from tensile tests that the coupling welding process has the highest tensile strength and yield strength, 872 MPa and 692 MPa, respectively, and the fracture elongation is 29.29%. The single-beam laser forging coupled arc welding process has a distance of laser and wire of 6–8 mm, a laser wavelength of 1,064 nm and the highest weld fusion ratio. The microhardness test shows that the average hardness of single-beam laser forging in the weld zone is 487.54 HV, which is 10.30% higher than that of arc welding. The average hardness in the fusion zone is 788.08 HV, which is 14.52% higher than that of the arc welding process.

The originality of the experiment: proposed a new process method of coupling arc repair for offshore steel forging; adopted a new process method of simultaneous coupling of single-beam short-pulse laser, double-beam short-pulse laser and arc welding; and obtained effect of pulsed laser and arc composite repair on porosity and fusion of E690 marine steel welds.