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The purpose of this paper is to present a semi-analytical solution to one-dimensional (1D) consolidation induced by a constant inner point sink in viscoelastic saturated soils.

Based on the Kelvin–Voigt constitutive law and 1D consolidation equation of saturated soils subject to an inner sink, the analytical solutions of the effective stress, the pore pressure and the surface settlement in Laplace domain were derived by using Laplace transform. Then, the semi-analytical solutions of the pore pressure and the surface settlement in physical domain were obtained by implementing Laplace numerical inversion via Crump method.

As for the case of linear elasticity, it is shown that the simplified form of the presented solution in this study is the same as the available analytical solution in the literature. This to some degree depicts that the proposed solution in this paper is reliable. Finally, parameter studies were conducted to investigate the effects of the relevant parameters on the consolidation settlement of saturated soils. The presented solution and method are of great benefit to provide deep insights into the 1D consolidation behavior of viscoelastic saturated soils.

The presented solution and method are of great benefit to provide deep insights into the 1D consolidation behavior of viscoelastic saturated soils. Consolidation behavior of viscoelastic saturated soils could be reasonably predicted by using the proposed solution with considering variations of both flux and depth because of inner point sink.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings and leverage manipulation and the moderating effects of internal and external supervision.

The authors draw on a sample of Chinese non-financial A-share-listed firms from 2013 to 2020 to explore the effect of ESG ratings on leverage manipulation. Robustness and endogeneity tests confirm the validity of the regression results.

ESG ratings inhibit leverage manipulation by improving social reputation, information transparency and financing constraints. This effect is weakened by internal supervision, captured by the ratio of institutional investor ownership, and strengthened by external supervision, captured by the level of marketization. The effect is stronger in non-state-owned firms and firms in non-polluting industries. The governance dimension of ESG exhibits the strongest effect, with comprehensive environmental governance ratings and social governance ratings also suppressing leverage manipulation.

Firms should strive to cultivate environmental awareness, fulfil their social responsibilities and enhance internal governance, which may help to strengthen the firm’s sustainability orientation, mitigate opportunistic behaviours and ultimately contribute to high-quality firm development. The top managers of firms should exercise self-restraint and take the initiative to reduce leverage manipulation by establishing an appropriate governance structure and sustainable business operation system that incorporate environmental and social governance in addition to general governance.

Policymakers and regulators should formulate unified guidelines with comprehensive criteria to improve the scope and quality of ESG information disclosure and provide specific guidance on ESG practice for firms. Investors should incorporate ESG ratings into their investment decision framework to lower their portfolio risk.

This study contributes to the literature in four ways. Firstly, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is among the first to show that high ESG ratings may mitigate firms’ opportunistic behaviours. Secondly, it identifies the governance factor of leverage manipulation from the perspective of firms’ subjective sustainability orientation. Thirdly, it demonstrates that the relationship between ESG ratings and leverage manipulation varies with the level of internal and external supervision. Finally, it highlights the importance of governance in guaranteeing the other two dimensions’ roles by decomposing overall ESG.

Based on appraisal theory and social response theory, this study aims to explore the mechanism of AI failure types on consumer recovery expectation from the perspective of service failure assessment and validate the moderate role of anthropomorphism level.

Three scenario-based experiments were conducted to validate the research model. First, to test the effect of robot service failure types on customer recovery expectation; second, to further test the mediating role of perceived controllability, perceived stability and perceived severity; finally, to verify the moderating effect of anthropomorphic level.

Non-functional failures reduce consumer recovery expectation compared to functional failures; perceived controllability and perceived severity play a mediating role in the impact of service failure types on recovery expectation; the influence of service failure types on perceived controllability and perceived severity is moderated by the anthropomorphism level.

The findings enrich the influence mechanism and boundary conditions of service failure types, and have implications for online enterprise follow-up service recovery and improvement of anthropomorphic design.

This study aims to establish an evaluation method for cross-regional major infrastructure project (CRMIP) supportability. The focus is to identify evaluation indicators from a complexity perspective and develop an evaluation model using qualitative and quantitative methods. Case studies are carried out to verify the reliability of the evaluation model, thereby providing theoretical and practical guidance for CRMIP operations and maintenance (O&M).

Guided by the idea of complexity management, the evaluation indicators of CRMIP supportability are determined through literature analysis, actual O&M experience and expert interviews. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, consisting of sequential relationship analysis, entropy weighting, game theory and cloud model, is developed to determine the indicator weights. Finally, the evaluation model is used to evaluate the supportability of the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge (HZMB), which tests the rationality of the model and reveals its supportability level.

The results demonstrate that CRMIPs' supportability is influenced by 6 guideline-level and 18 indicator-level indicators, and the priority of the influencing factors includes “organization,” “technology,” “system,” “human resources,” “material system,” and “funding.” As for specific indicators, “organizational objectives,” “organizational structure and synergy mechanism,” and “technical systems and procedures” are critical to CRMIPs' O&M supportability. The results also indicate that the supportability level of the HZMB falls between good and excellent.

Under the guidance of complexity management thinking, this study proposes a supportability evaluation framework based on the combined weights of game theory and the cloud model. This study provides a valuable reference and scientific judgment for the health and safety of CRMIPs' O&M.

Mixed products, while presenting new business opportunities, raise considerable concerns among managers and researchers. However, whether mixed products (functionally vs culturally) trigger positive or negative consumer reactions is controversial. Hereby, the present research seeks to resolve the conflicting effects by examining the moderating role of service provider type (humanoid service robot vs human employee) in the impact of mixed products on consumer reactions.

Two studies were conducted to explore the effect of mixed products on consumer reactions. Specifically, study 1 was developed to examine the interplay of mixed products and service provider type in shaping consumers' product attitudes and purchase intentions under an offline shopping scenario; study 2 further provided evidence for the mediating roles of perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment in the above processes under an online-shopping context.

The convergent findings of two studies conclude that, when served by a humanoid service robot (vs human employee), consumers exhibit more positive attitudes and higher purchase intentions toward functionally (vs culturally) mixed products. Furthermore, such effect is driven by the perceived usefulness (vs perceived enjoyment) when served by humanoid robot (vs human employee).

First, this is one of the first studies to conceptualize mixed products as the two-dimensional construct (i.e. functionally mixed and culturally mixed), and the findings sheds light on the mixed products literature. Second, this paper introduces service provider type as the boundary condition for the impact of mixed products on consumers' product attitudes and purchase intentions, which expands the match-up hypothesis and schema theory in service marketing. Third, the current research explores the mediating roles of perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment in the above effects, which could make significant contribution to the motivation theory.

Despite the growing and widespread importance of exploring the primary factors facilitating global value chain (GVC) and supply chain management, this topic has received surprisingly little attention to date. Drawing upon the technology–organization–environment framework and the resource-based view, this study aims to fill these important gaps in the literature by theorizing and developing a comprehensive model to explain how a foreign subsidiary of multinational enterprises can improve the upgrading of the GVC and supply chain performance in a host market.

Using survey data collected from 266 foreign subsidiaries of multinational enterprises operating in the Chinese manufacturing sector, this study empirically examines the theoretical framework using a structural equation modeling approach.

The results demonstrated that the relative advantages of digital technology, supplier diversification and environmental uncertainty all contribute positively to the development of foreign subsidiaries’ supply chain management capabilities. Meanwhile, supply chain management capability plays a positive role in foreign subsidiaries facilitating GVC upgrading and enhancing supply chain performance.

The findings of this study provide many important implications and useful insights to foreign subsidiaries operating in an emerging host market by concentrating on how to develop and maintain their competitive advantages in the process of GVC reshaping and supply chain restructuring.

This study provides a useful guide to help firms better understand how they may develop and enhance their competitive advantages in upgrading their GVCs and implementing supply chain restructuring. In addition, this research generates important policy implications considering the recent trend toward creating more effective and sustainable global supply value chains.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the initial corrosion behavior of pure Mg, AZ31 and AZ91 alloys in phosphate buffer solution (PBS) and to characterize the features in corrosion type and resistance of the corrosion product layer.

The scanning electron microscopy, equipped with energy-dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy have been used to characterize the as-corroded samples. Besides, the Mg²⁺ concentration in PBSs has been determined by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrum.

It has been found that pure Mg suffers pit corrosion, and AZ31 initially undergoes pit corrosion and then uniform corrosion dominates with an extended immersion duration. However, AZ91 exhibits the uniform corrosion with the highest corrosion rate among the three materials. Besides, the corrosion product layer on AZ31 has the best compactness and corrosion resistance.

The findings add depth in understanding the corrosion of pure Mg and its alloys in PBS and also have guiding significance in exploring the effects by alloyed elements to develop new biomaterials with better performance.

This paper aims to conduct a comparative study between the historical development of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in both the USA and China. It is motivated by the phenomenon that CSR is developing in two different directions (global vs local).

A comparative study on sustainability-linked compensation illustrates how CSR in the USA is driven by firm-level economic decisions, in which the manifestations of CSR are usually those which prove to be the most profitable financially. Moreover, a case analysis on the green bond market in China contrarily illustrates how CSR in China is usually based more on alignment with top-down, state-led initiatives in which the state directs the ways in which CSR is manifested.

This paper reveals that despite globalizing trends are attempting to unify definitions of CSR, they inevitably become localized to fit the societal needs in which they are located.

By understanding how CSR development in these two countries has changed over time, this paper shows that future developments in CSR will likely be influenced more by local practices than by converging global forces.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of enterprise is influenced by the enterprise digital transformation. In addition, this study explains how enterprise digital transformation affects ESG performance.

The sample covers 4,646 nonfinancial companies listed on China’s A-share market from 2009 to 2021. The study adopts the fixed-effects multiple linear regression to perform the data analysis.

The study finds that enterprise digital transformation has a significant inverted U-shaped impact on ESG performance. Moderate digital transformation can improve enterprise ESG performance, whereas excessive digital transformation will bring new organizational conflicts and increase enterprise costs, which is detrimental to ESG performance. This inverted U-shaped effect is more pronounced in industrial cities, manufacturing industries and enterprises with less financing constraints and executives with financial backgrounds. Enterprise digital transformation mainly affects ESG performance by affecting the level of internal information communication and disclosure, the level of internal control and the principal-agent cost.

The government should take multiple measures to encourage enterprises to choose appropriate digital transformation based on their own production behaviors and development strategies, encourage them to innovate and upgrade their organizational management and development models in conjunction with digital transformation and guide them to use digital technology to improve ESG performance.

This study shows that irrational digital transformation cannot effectively improve the ESG performance of enterprises and promote the sustainable development of the country. Enterprises should carry out reasonable digital transformation according to their own development needs and finally improve the green and sustainable development ability of enterprises and promote the sustainable development of society.

This study examines the relationship between enterprise digital transformation and ESG performance. Different from the linear relationship between the two in previous major studies, this study proves the inverse U-shaped relationship between enterprise digital transformation and ESG performance through mathematical theoretical model derivation and empirical test. This study also explores in detail how corporate digital transformation affects ESG performance, as well as discusses heterogeneity at the city, industry and firm levels. It is proposed that enterprises should take into account their own characteristics and carry out reasonable digital transformation according to their development needs.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of wind direction and ease allowance on thermal comfort in sportswear.

The effects of wind direction (front, side, back and calm (no wind) 1.5 m/s) and seven magnitudes of ease allowance on sportswear thermal insulation and surface temperature were investigated. An 11 zones’ thermal manikin was used to acquire the static thermal insulation. Surface temperature was captured by a thermal imager.

The results showed that the wind was a significant effect on thermal performance, however, wind direction effect was only significant in the segment covered with multilayer fabric, such as the abdomen and hip (p=0.034). Although the ease allowance influenced the overall thermal insulation obviously, the difference between seven sizes suits was not significant. Nevertheless, the ease allowance affected the surface temperature of chest and back significantly (p=0.023, 0.007). Correlation between thermal insulation and surface temperature was negative, and correlation level was degraded when affected by wind factor.

Sportswear’s fabric and style did not discussed as effect factors. It would be taken into accounted in the future research.

Wind direction impact thermal comfort in multilayer regions significantly. It is a reference to improve sportswear’s comfort design.