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The purpose of this paper is to characterize a commutative ring R with identity which is not an integral domain such that ZT(R), the total zero-divisor graph of R is connected and to determine the diameter and radius of ZT(R) whenever ZT(R) is connected. Also, the purpose is to generalize some of the known results proved by Duric et al. on the total zero-divisor graph of R.

We use the methods from commutative ring theory on primary decomposition and strong primary decomposition of ideals in commutative rings. The structure of ideals, the primary ideals, the prime ideals, the set of zero-divisors of the finite direct product of commutative rings is used in this paper. The notion of maximal Nagata prime of the zero-ideal of a commutative ring is also used in our discussion.

For a commutative ring R with identity, ZT(R) is the intersection of the zero-divisor graph of R and the total graph of R induced by the set of all non-zero zero-divisors of R. The zero-divisor graph of R and the total graph of R induced by the set of all non-zero zero-divisors of R are well studied. Hence, we determine necessary and sufficient condition so that ZT(R) agrees with the zero-divisor graph of R (respectively, agrees with the total graph induced by the set of non-zero zero-divisors of R). If Z(R) is an ideal of R, then it is noted that ZT(R) agrees with the zero-divisor graph of R. Hence, we focus on rings R such that Z(R) is not an ideal of R. We are able to characterize R such that ZT(R) is connected under the assumptions that the zero ideal of R admits a strong primary decomposition and Z(R) is not an ideal of R. With the above assumptions, we are able to determine the domination number of ZT(R).

Duric et al. characterized Artinian rings R such that ZT(R) is connected. In this paper, we extend their result to rings R such that the zero ideal of R admits a strong primary decomposition and Z(R) is not an ideal of R. As an Artinian ring is isomorphic to the direct product of a finite number of Artinian local rings, we try to characterize R such that ZT(R) is connected under the assumption that R is ta finite direct product of rings R1, R2, … Rn with Z(Ri) is an ideal of Ri for each i between 1 to n. Their result on domination number of ZT(R) is also generalized in this paper. We provide several examples to illustrate our results proved.

The implication of this paper is that the existing result of Duric et al. is applicable to large class of commutative rings thereby yielding more examples. Moreover, the results proved in this paper make us to understand the structure of commutative rings better. It also helps us to learn the interplay between the ring-theoretic properties and the graph-theoretic properties of the graph associated with it.

The results proved in this paper are original and they provide more insight into the structure of total zero-divisor graph of a commutative ring. This paper provides several examples. Not much work done in the area of total zero-divisor graph of a commutative ring. This paper is a contribution to the area of graphs and rings and may inspire other researchers to study the total zero-divisor graph in further detail.

This study aims to establish an analytical framework to help investors accommodate their environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) preferences. The analytical solutions were complemented by empirical analyses to shed light on their benefits and tractability.

This study proposes an expected multi-attribute utility analysis for ESG investors in which stocks can be treated as more green or less green (brown) than the market, represented by an index, all modeled in a one-factor structure. The solution is found via the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation with proper treatment of various sources of risk. For the empirical analysis, we use the RepRisk Rating of US stocks from 2010 to 2020 to select companies that are representative of various ESG ratings.

This study finds closed-form solutions for optimal allocations, wealth and value functions. Our empirical analysis reveals drastic increases in wealth allocation toward high-rated ESG stocks for ESG-sensitive investors, even as the overall level of pecuniary satisfaction remains unchanged.

This study broadens the existing analytical framework by introducing a market portfolio along with green and brown stocks. As by-products, we first demonstrate that investors do not need to reduce their pecuniary satisfaction to increase green investment. Second, we propose a parameterization to capture investors' preferences for green assets over brown or market assets, independent of asset performance.

This paper examines the relationship between a prime contractor's financial health and its mergers and acquisitions (M&A) spending in the defense industry. It aims to provide models that give the United States Department of Defense (DoD) indications of future M&A activity, informing decision-makers and contributing to ensuring competitive markets that benefit the consumer.

The study uses panel data regression models on 40 companies between 1985 and 2021. The company's financial health is assessed using industry-standard financial ratios (i.e. measures of profitability, efficiency, solvency and liquidity) while controlling for economic factors such as national productivity, defense budgets and firm size.

The results show a significant relationship between efficiency and M&A spending, indicating that companies with lower efficiency tend to spend more on M&As. However, there was no significant relationship between M&A spending and a company's profitability or solvency. These results were consistent with previous research and the study's hypotheses for profitability and solvency. However, the effect of liquidity was the opposite of the expected result, possibly due to the defense industry's different view on liquidity compared to previous research.

The paper provides insights into the relationship between a prime contractor's financial health and its M&A spending, a topic with limited research. The findings can inform policymakers and regulators on the industrial base's future M&A activity, ensuring competitive markets that benefit the consumer.

The sustainable development of the platform economy has been hindered by the absence and alienation of platform corporate social responsibility. Previous studies have mainly focused on the contents and governance models for platform corporate social responsibility. This study seeks to explore which strategy participants choose in the governance of platform corporate social responsibility and their influencing factors.

Using a platform ecosystem approach, a quadrilateral evolutionary game model was developed, and the stabilities of subjects’ behavioral strategies and their combinations in various scenarios were analyzed. Additionally, the effects of key parameters on the system’s evolutionary path were simulated.

The ideal steady state system is achieved when platform enterprises, complementors and consumers adopt positive strategies while the government adopts lax regulation. Moreover, the evolutionary strategies of the subjects are influenced by several factors, including the participation costs of governance, the rewards and punishments imposed by platform enterprises, as well as the reputational losses of platform enterprises and complementors due to media coverage.

This study offers insights into improving the governance effectiveness of platform corporate social responsibility for managers and practitioners.

This study contributes to existing literature by considering the rational orientation of platform ecosystem members and revealing the interaction mechanisms among members. Furthermore, this study combines collective action theory and reputation theory to clarify the influencing factors on members’ behaviors.

This paper aims to highlight the effect of mobile commerce (m-commerce) ubiquity on usage behavior as well as the mediator mechanism of brand trust between ubiquity and usage behavior. To extend the findings, this research also examines the moderator role of product reputation on the nexus between brand trust and usage behavior in the m-commerce context.

Given the quantitative approach, the authors gathered 1,565 valid responses from m-commerce app users. Data were analyzed in SmartPLS 4.

Ubiquity positively impacted brand trust, and the latter positively influenced m-commerce usage behavior. Brand trust also partially mediated the effect of m-commerce ubiquity on usage behavior, along with product reputation moderating the positive effect of brand trust on usage behavior.

By combining resource-based theory with signaling theory in the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework, this paper's novelty focuses on the investigation of m-commerce ubiquity, brand trust as a mediating mechanism and product reputation as a moderator in explaining usage behavior in the m-commerce context.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are a critical time for organizations and their consumers. For the company, there are many financial and non-financial risks. For customers, it requires deciding whether or not to continue the relationship that they had with the previous firm. This paper explores the extent to which communicating the family business (FB) brand, and the previous reputation of the acquirer affects customer perceptions and intentions after an M&A event.

Data for this study were collected from 159 Italian participants. We used a 2 (Communication of FB brand: Yes vs. No) by 3 (Reputation: positive, neutral, negative) between subjects’ experiment to test how the communication of the FB brand and the reputation of the acquirer affected perceived trustworthiness and service quality, and how this, in turn, influenced customer purchase intentions.

We find that communicating the FB brand does not influence consumer perceptions and intentions toward the acquired company. However, the previous reputation of the acquiring firm is critical in influencing consumer perceptions and intentions to buy.

Our study continues the growing research on M&A in family firms. It also increases our understanding of the boundary conditions of the FB brand effects, and the relevance that the previous reputation of a family firm can have in M&A scenarios. Finally, our study introduces the “Halo” and “Velcro” effects into the FB literature.

This study aims to address a significant and previously unanswered question for both academics and practitioners: how do organizations learn to apply Blockchain technology to support modern slavery (MS) supply chain capabilities? Specifically, this study examines whether employees’ digital dexterity (EDD) and strategic investment in Blockchain technology (SIBT) can support three MS supply chain capabilities: internal MS capability (IMSC), MS capability with customers (MSCC) and MS capability with suppliers (MSCS).

This study uses resource accumulation and deployment perspective to explain how EDD promotes SIBT, which then drives the development of MS supply chain capabilities. Survey data collected from the Chinese manufacturing industry were used to test the proposed theoretical framework and hypotheses through structural equation modelling and moderated regression analysis.

EDD has a positive relationship with SIBT. SIBT has a positive relationship with IMSC. IMSC fully mediates the relationships between SIBT and MS capability with customers and suppliers.

By conceptualizing MS supply chain capabilities as a multi-dimensional construct for the first time, this study discovers the significant mediating roles of IMSC. The empirical findings also clarify digital dexterity of employees that drives investment in Blockchain technology to foster MS supply chain capabilities as resource accumulation and deployment processes.

The link between interlocking directors and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) efficiency has been analyzed in an information asymmetry environment. Despite an abundance of evidence highlighting that interlocking directors do contribute to M&A efficiency in an acquirer-target binary relationship, the target is embedded in a complex network of supplier-customer relationships, which implies that the acquirer needs to consider the value of suppliers, distributors and retailers in the target’s supply chain in improving M&A efficiency. Through the lenses of acquirer-target multivariate relationships, this paper aims to examine how directors with supply chain experience (DSCs) act as heterogeneous network pipes to affect M&A efficiency.

Using a sample of 311 A-share listed firms on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges in China during 2011–2020, this paper investigates the relationship between DSCs and M&A efficiency by using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression.

Through empirical research, we verify a negative relationship between DSCs and M&A duration and an inverted U-shaped relationship between both DSCs and M&A performance, revealing the complexity of the relationship between experience and efficiency. Furthermore, drawing on upper echelon theory, the information value of DSCs will be greatly reduced when executives have overconfident psychological characteristics, which are mainly shown to negatively moderate the relationship between DSCs and M&A performance. We also conduct multiple robustness tests and supplemental analyses to illustrate the robustness and boundaries of our findings. Finally, DSCs are likely more important in environments among growth and mature firms as well as high-growth industries.

We break through the assumption that interlocking directors contribute to M&A efficiency in an acquirer-target binary relationship and examine the impact of DSCs on M&A efficiency based on micro-empirical evidence from the value of target-related upstream or downstream industries, which extends the connotation of interlocking directors and enriches the study related to factors influencing M&A efficiency.

The study aims to address a critical gap in existing healthcare payment schemes and care service pricing by recognizing the influential role of patients' decisions on self-management efforts. These decisions not only impact health outcomes but also shape the demand for care, subsequently influencing care costs. Despite the significance of this interplay, current payment schemes often overlook these dynamics. The research focuses on investigating the implications of a novel behavior-based payment scheme, designed to align incentives and establish a direct connection between patients' decisions and care costs. The primary objective is to comprehensively understand whether and how this innovative payment scheme structure influences key stakeholders, including patients, care providers, insurers and overall social welfare.

In this paper, we propose a game-theoretical model to incorporate the performance of self-management with the demand for healthcare service, compare the patient's effort decision for self-management and provider's price decision for healthcare service under a behavior-based scheme with that under two implemented widely payment schemes, that is, co-payment scheme and co-insurance scheme.

Our findings confirm that the behavior-based scheme incentives patient self-management more than current schemes while reducing their possibility of seeking healthcare service, which indirectly induces the provider to lower the price of the service. The stakeholders' utility under various payment schemes is sensitive to the cost of treatment and the perceived health utility of patients. Especially, patient health awareness is not always benefited provider profit, as it motivates patient self-management while diminishing the demand for care.

We provide a novel framework for characterizing behavior-based payment schemes. Our results confirm the need for modification of the current payment scheme to incentivize patient self-management.

The authors investigate the effects of Chinese acquirer’s chief executive officer (CEO) risk preference on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) payment method and the moderating roles played by acquirer’s ownership, industry relatedness and whether the M&A is cross-border.

Using 4,624 worldwide M&A deals conducted by Chinese firms from 2009 to 2021, the authors conduct multiple linear regression and ordered probit regression. And comprehensive indexes constructed based on the observed features of acquirer’s CEOs are used to be the proxy for CEO risk preference.

The results show that the higher-level Chinese acquirer’s CEO risk preference is overall positively associated with using more stock in payment. Moreover, the above relationship is strengthened if the ownership of the acquirer is state-owned.

The authors highlight the importance of the non-economic factors and demonstrate a relationship between the Chinese acquirer’s CEO risk preference and the M&A payment method, providing support for and enriching the upper echelons theory (UET). Moreover, the unique risk priorities of Chinese acquirers’ CEOs are revealed.