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The main objective of this paper is to analyze how leadership unity (LU) within universities affects the innovativeness of faculty, with a focus on the potential moderating role of strategic sensitivity (SS).

The conceptual model of this research shows that SS and LU of the university impact the faculty's innovativeness. Meantime, the moderating effect of SS is assessed. A 49-item questionnaire was administered to 350 respondents who were managers and faculties of the university. The hierarchical regression technique was used for analyzing data and testing hypotheses.

The findings support both a curvilinear relationship based on a concave upward pattern and a linear relationship between LU in the university and the innovativeness of faculty. In addition, the university's SS positively influences the faculty's innovativeness. SS negatively moderates the curvilinear relationship between LU and faculty's innovativeness, i.e. the U-shaped effect exists only when the level of SS is high.

The results of this study shed new light on the relationships between LU and SS with innovativeness in the higher education landscape. It underlines the importance of SS as a moderator in the relationship between LU and innovativeness. This study was conducted in a developing country under sanctions with an Eastern culture, Iran. Thus, it is recommended that the conceptual framework of this study be tested in different countries with cultural diversity to generalize its findings.

Administrators of universities need to recognize that creating unity and cohesion among managers of various levels of the university is crucial. They should also be aware that responses to external changes can lead to new opportunities for the university. Embracing transformation within the organizational strategies of the university will have a significant influence on competition, politics, and internal operations.

This research contributes to the academic discussions on the importance of LU and SS and also the moderation effect of SS in driving and promoting innovativeness in among faculties by providing empirical evidence. The results present valuable insights for scholars, practitioners and policymakers seeking to understand innovativeness among faculties in the higher education setting.

School–university partnerships are important in teacher education to ensure PK-12 preservice teachers gain teaching experience prior to becoming teachers of record. Drawing on Ball and Cohen’s (1999) concept of “practice-based teacher education,” this three-year qualitative study examines the results of an intentionally reciprocal school–university partnership centered on a practice-based learning, field-based course. The following question guided this research: Having designed and facilitated a school–university partnership centered on reciprocity, what factors contributed to and/or took away from this commitment?

The current study examined three data sources, namely: (1) seven semi-structured focus group interviews with a teacher educator, sixth-grade teachers (n = 4) and a principal; (2) eight question/answer sessions between preservice teachers and partnering secondary teachers and (3)one focus group between the two authors. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis.

This study’s findings highlight the reciprocal nature of the school–university partnership, showcasing the positive outcomes and challenges faced by stakeholders. Clear communication and ongoing dialogue were identified as key elements to establishing and maintaining a reciprocal relationship. Additionally, emphasis on shared learning experiences between partners were found valuable and important to maintaining benefit to all partners. Relationship development also remained an important and positive outcome of this partnership. Additionally, there were challenges related to time, and schedule constraints were evident in the partnership. Moreover, ongoing reflection and a willingness to adjust and change based on experiences and lessons learned ensured participants recognized the importance of ongoing iteration and calibration to address challenges and enhance the partnership.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability.

The paper includes implications for the development of other school–university partnerships that prioritize reciprocity, highlighting an often assumed, but not always examined, component necessary to the success of school–university partnerships.

This chapter explores how the development of football fandom for the Chinese national team and local football clubs is strongly associated with societal changes. Although the performances of Chinese football teams, especially the national team, have failed to impress the world, football remains the most popular because of millions of supporters with loyalty and passion. Most studies related to fans mainly focus on the economic and political implications of spectatorship along with the rise of China. Nevertheless, few articles are available to answer the fundamental questions, such as ‘When did these supporters come out?’ and ‘What were the factors of the development of fandom?’. By going through archival records and published documents over the last decades, this chapter offers a comprehensive and historical analysis of the development of football fandom in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and deals with these unanswered questions. As such, this chapter does not intend to be the most authoritative one but is one of the rare sources to lay down the foundation for research on Chinese football fandom. Furthermore, this chapter also proves that studies on football fandom can be a useful window for observing Chinese society.

This chapter critically evaluates whether football can attain recognition as a national sport in China. Article No. 11, released by the Chinese government in 2015, aimed to develop a new national strategy centralised on the sport of football to foster consumption and enhance national soft power. Consequently, this also means encouraging Chinese football fans to support the national football team. Comparing the significance of local football clubs and the national football team to Chinese football fans is deemed meaningless and unable to generate useful information to comprehend Chinese people's attitudes towards local and national communities. Through literature comparisons with established Chinese national sports such as Chinese martial arts, badminton and table tennis, the discussion reveals that football currently falls short of meeting the general criteria of invention and popularity to be considered a Chinese national sport. In the specific Chinese context, it also proves that football fails to meet the criterion of politics, hindering its identification as a national sport. Consequently, the chapter rebuts the assumption and advocates for the validity of comparing how fans assess their fandom for local and national football teams.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new combined finite-discrete element method (FDEM) to analyze the mechanical properties, failure behavior and slope stability of soil rock mixtures (SRM), in which the rocks within the SRM model have shape randomness, size randomness and spatial distribution randomness.

Based on the modeling method of heterogeneous rocks, the SRM numerical model can be built and by adjusting the boundary between soil and rock, an SRM numerical model with any rock content can be obtained. The reliability and robustness of the new modeling method can be verified by uniaxial compression simulation. In addition, this paper investigates the effects of rock topology, rock content, slope height and slope inclination on the stability of SRM slopes.

Investigations of the influences of rock content, slope height and slope inclination of SRM slopes showed that the slope height had little effect on the failure mode. The influences of rock content and slope inclination on the slope failure mode were significant. With increasing rock content and slope dip angle, SRM slopes gradually transitioned from a single shear failure mode to a multi-shear fracture failure mode, and shear fractures showed irregular and bifurcated characteristics in which the cut-off values of rock content and slope inclination were 20% and 80°, respectively.

This paper proposed a new modeling method for SRMs based on FDEM, with rocks having random shapes, sizes and spatial distributions.

The purpose of this study is to present a system dynamic (SD)-based remanufacturing economic analysis model of used automobile engine under two recycling modes. The authors will compare the remanufacturing cost, sales profit and sales revenue from time and space dimensions incurred in different recycling modes in the long run.

The remanufacturing economic analysis model is based on SD methodology. The authors can simulate the relations of impact factors on automobile engine recycling and remanufacturing and further analyze and compare the cost, sales profit and sales revenue incurred in different recycling modes in the long term.

Sinotruk Steyr engine remanufacturing in Shandong province is taken as the research case subject. The revenue, cost and profit under the two recycling modes from 2015 to 2035 are analyzed and compared. The results show that different recycling modes have significant varying influence on the economy of engine remanufacturing.

This economic analysis model can provide a method reference to decide the recycling mode for auto components and other product remanufacturing. Moreover, this model can guide and support the sustainable development of remanufacturing industry.

This paper aims to extend insights about the relationship between inter-organizational collaboration and approaches to control from the perspective of decision-makers. We investigate the relationship between approaches to control and intended forms of integration between actors responsible for solving the complex problem of integrated person-centered care for elderly with diverse and significant needs.

The empirical study is based on a content analysis of contractual agreements. We have analyzed a total of 118 collaboration agreements and associative documents between all Swedish regions and municipalities.

The study shows that intended integration is subject to remarkable variation in intended forms of inter-organizational collaboration in this Swedish case. The paper illustrates that decision-makers’ intentions with proposed collaboration in each given context are important for the chosen approach to control. Regardless of intended forms of integration, our study suggests that an imminent soft approach to control is expressed alongside limited signs of hard control. Various forms of intended integration can be managed by the two approaches simultaneously insofar as the agreements appear to have a two-sided purpose.

Our paper proposes an empirically driven taxonomy of intended forms of integration initiatives. The taxonomy provides resources for studies about how collaboration can be managed when it is stipulated by national legislation but local self-governance gives actors considerable freedom to decide on how to organize and manage services. By presenting the taxonomy and relating this to approaches of control, our iterative study builds on and adds to a recent stream of research arguing that the relationship between collaboration and approaches to control may by fuzzier and more complex than originally thought.

To address the issues of the insufficient output torque associated with the application of intensifying-flux permanent magnet (PM) machines in electric vehicles, this paper aims to propose an intensifying-flux hybrid excitation PM machine. It is possible to adjust the air gap magnetic field by adjusting the field current in the excitation winding, thereby increasing the torque output capability and speed range of the machine.

First, a novel intensifying-flux hybrid excited permanent magnet synchronous machine (IF-HEPMSM) is proposed on the basis of intensifying-flux permanent magnet synchronous machine (IF-PMSM) and an equivalent magnetic circuit model is established. Second, the tooth width and yoke thickness of the machine stator are optimized to ensure the overload capacity of the machine while effectively improving the wide flux regulation range. Furthermore, the electromagnetic characteristics of the IF-HEPMSM are investigated and compared with the IF-PMSM and conventional permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) by using finite element simulations.

The i_d of IF-HEPMSM and IF-PMSM is greater than zero low-speed magnetizing current. And the flux-weakening current of the IF-HEPMSM is 18% and 3% smaller than of the conventional PMSM and IF-PMSM.

Aiming at the problems of IF-PMSM applied to electric vehicles, this paper proposes an IF-HEPMSM. The air gap magnetic field is adjusted by controlling the current of the excitation winding to improve the reliability of the machine. Therefore, the IF-HEPMSM combines the advantages of high-power density and high efficiency of the PMSM and the controllable magnetic field of the electro-excitation machine, which is of great engineering value when applied in the field of electric vehicles.

The proposed IF-HEPMSM offers better flux regulation capability with electromagnetic characteristics analysis and maps of dq-axis current as compared to IF-PMSM and conventional PMSM. Moreover, the improvement of the torque can make up for the shortcomings of the insufficient torque output capability of the IF-PMSM.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the interplay of stressor (e.g. fear of missing out, FoMO) and strains (e.g. perceived social overload, communication overload, information overload and system feature overload) in social networking sites (SNS) use can contribute to users’ SNS fatigue from a configurational view.

Data were collected among 363 SNS users in China via an online survey, and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was applied in this study to scrutinize the different combinations of FoMO and overload that contribute to the same outcome of SNS fatigue.

Six combinations of casual conditions were identified to underlie SNS fatigue. The results showed that FoMO, perceived information overload and system feature overload are the core conditions that contribute to SNS fatigue when combined with other types of overloads.

The current work supplements the research findings on SNS fatigue by identifying the configurations contributing to SNS fatigue from the joint effects of stressor (FoMO) and strain (perceived social overload, communication overload, information overload and system feature overload) and by providing explanations for SNS fatigue from the configurational perspective.

This first chapter is the introduction to the book. The purpose of this book is to address and better understand why China tightly embraces modern sport in contemporary times. Some view this as an indicator of glocalisation and a result of Western industrial civilization putting pressure on China to showcase their strengths as a nation. Some important considerations to explore are China's mediated ability to play and compete with the west. Sport is also seen as a channel of observing global political and economic challenges, especially those in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the intense tensions between communities, which certainly inspires further academic development. Given China's recently remarkable achievements in sport, it is high time to show the world more inside stories of sport development across the nation. The contributors of this collection bring foundational Chinese context to each chapter as they examine changing sport cultures at different scales.