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1 – 10 of 14Lingyun Huang, Jiankun Liu and Zhigang Huang
The operational framework of external financing in the correlation between the gender of entrepreneurs and firm performance remains to be resolved. This study aims to investigate…
Abstract
Purpose
The operational framework of external financing in the correlation between the gender of entrepreneurs and firm performance remains to be resolved. This study aims to investigate the mediating effect of external financing on gender-based disparities in private firm performance and to explore its heterogeneity within the Chinese context.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on national data from the 10th to 13th Chinese Private Enterprise Survey, this study used a bootstrap-based mediation effect model to analyze the role of external financing as a mediator in the relationship between entrepreneur gender and firm performance.
Findings
This study found that external financing is a constructive mediator between entrepreneur gender and firm performance. Heterogeneity analysis revealed that external financing plays a complementary mediation role in the impact of entrepreneur gender on performance in West China. In the tertiary industry, external financing acts as the sole mediator for the impact of gender on firm performance. Notably, this mediating effect is present in non-startups but not in startups.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that external financing can improve the firm performance of female entrepreneurs. Governments and policymakers should strengthen financial support for female entrepreneurs in West China, tertiary industry and non-startup enterprises.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature on gender and corporate governance by shedding light on the mediating role of external financing in the relationship between the gender of business owners and firm performance.
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Minggong Zhang, Xiaolong Xue, Ting Luo, Mengmeng Li and Xiaoling Tang
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…
Abstract
Purpose
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).
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Originality/value
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.
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Xin Su, Eburilitu Bai and Guojun Hai
A unified framework for solving the bending, buckling and vibration problems of rectangular thin plates (RTPs) with four free edges (FFFF), including isotropic RTPs, orthotropic…
Abstract
Purpose
A unified framework for solving the bending, buckling and vibration problems of rectangular thin plates (RTPs) with four free edges (FFFF), including isotropic RTPs, orthotropic rectangular thin plates (ORTPs) and nano-rectangular plates, is established by using the symplectic superposition method (SSM).
Design/methodology/approach
The original fourth-order partial differential equation is first rewritten into Hamiltonian system. The class of boundary value problems of the original equation is decomposed into three subproblems, and each subproblem is given the corresponding symplectic eigenvalues and symplectic eigenvectors by using the separation variable method in Hamiltonian system. The symplectic orthogonality and completeness of symplectic eigen-vectors are proved. Then, the symplectic eigenvector expansion method is applied to solve the each subproblem. Then, the symplectic superposition solution of the boundary value problem of the original fourth-order partial differential equation is given through superposing analytical solutions of three foundation plates.
Findings
The bending, vibration and buckling problems of the rectangular nano-plate/isotropic rectangular thin plate/orthotropic rectangular thin plate with FFFF can be solved by the unified symplectic superposition solution respectively.
Originality/value
The symplectic superposition solution obtained is a reference solution to verify the feasibility of other methods. At the same time, it can be used for parameter analysis to deeply understand the mechanical behavior of related RTPs. The advantages of this method are as follows: (1) It provides a systematic framework for solving the boundary value problem of a class of fourth-order partial differential equations. It is expected to solve more complicated boundary value problems of partial differential equations. (2) SSM uses series expansion of symplectic eigenvectors to accurately describe the solution. Moreover, symplectic eigenvectors are orthogonal and directly reflect the orthogonal relationship of vibration modes. (3) The SSM can be carried to bending, buckling and free vibration problems of the same plate with other boundary conditions.
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Jinnan Wu, Mengmeng Song, Pablo Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara, Hemin Jiang, Shanshan Guo and Wenpei Zhang
This study investigated why employees' cyberloafing behavior is affected by their coworkers' cyberloafing behavior. By integrating social learning theory and deterrence theory…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigated why employees' cyberloafing behavior is affected by their coworkers' cyberloafing behavior. By integrating social learning theory and deterrence theory, the authors developed a model to explain the role of employees' perceived certainty of formal and informal sanctions in understanding the effect of coworkers' cyberloafing behavior on employees' cyberloafing behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a survey that involved a two-stage data collection process (including 293 respondents) to test our developed model. Mplus 7.0 was used to analyze the data.
Findings
The results revealed that employees' cyberloafing was positively affected by their coworkers' cyberloafing both directly and indirectly. The indirect effect of coworkers' cyberloafing on employees' cyberloafing was mediated by the employees' perceived certainty of formal and informal sanctions on cyberloafing. Employees' perceived certainty of formal and informal sanctions were found to mediate the relationship both separately (each type of sanctions mediates the relationship individually) and in combination (the two types of sanctions form a serial mediation effect).
Originality/value
The study reveals an important mechanism – employees’ perceived certainty of formal and informal sanctions – that underlies the relationship between coworkers' cyberloafing and employees' cyberloafing, thus, contributing to the cyberloafing literature. It also demonstrates the importance of negative reinforcement (perceived sanctions) in the social learning process, which contributes to the literature on social learning theory because previous studies have primarily focused on the role of positive reinforcement. Lastly, the study reveals a positive relationship between employees' perceived certainty of formal sanctions and informal sanctions, which has important implications for deterrence theory.
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Mengmeng Wang and Shufeng (Simon) Xiao
Despite the growing and widespread importance of exploring the primary factors facilitating global value chain (GVC) and supply chain management, this topic has received…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Research limitations/implications
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.
Originality/value
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.
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Mengmeng Song, Xinyu Xing, Yucong Duan and Jian Mou
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…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Originality/value
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.
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Hongyan Jiang, Yudi Sun, Chen Li and Mengmeng Xu
With the improvement of consumers' health consciousness, healthy food has attracted great attention in daily consumption. Previous research into the sense of power often…
Abstract
Purpose
With the improvement of consumers' health consciousness, healthy food has attracted great attention in daily consumption. Previous research into the sense of power often distinguishes it into high and low level, ignoring the impact of different construal of power on consumption behaviors. This article divides power into dual construal (responsibility vs opportunity) and aims to examine the differential impacts of the construal of power on healthy food preference.
Design/methodology/approach
Two pretests and three formal experiments were conducted to examine the effect of the construal of power on the consumer's healthy food preference, the mediation of self-discipline perception and the moderation of the relative strength of prevention over promotion focus (i.e. RSPPF).
Findings
Results indicate that individuals who construe power as responsibility (vs opportunity) exhibit higher self-discipline perception, which in turn leads to greater healthy food preference. However, the main effect above can be weakened among the low-power group. Moreover, the above mediating effect of self-discipline perception is stronger for individuals with higher RSPPF.
Originality/value
First, based on the binary-construal perspective, this study refines the classification of high power and introduces it into the antecedent research of healthy food preference. Second, this paper reveals the self-discipline perception as the inner mechanism underlying the effect of the construal of power on healthy food preference, while RSPPF as the boundary condition for this mediating mechanism. Moreover, this research also provides practical implications for healthy food enterprises that the construal of power, self-discipline perception and regulatory focus should be taken into consideration in advertising design and healthy product promotion.
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Mengmeng Li, Jian Chen, Jingtao Sun, Long Hao, Di Wu, Jianqiu Wang and Wei Ke
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…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Originality/value
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.
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This study aims to solve the problem of job scheduling and multi automated guided vehicle (AGV) cooperation in intelligent manufacturing workshops.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to solve the problem of job scheduling and multi automated guided vehicle (AGV) cooperation in intelligent manufacturing workshops.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, an algorithm for job scheduling and cooperative work of multiple AGVs is designed. In the first part, with the goal of minimizing the total processing time and the total power consumption, the niche multi-objective evolutionary algorithm is used to determine the processing task arrangement on different machines. In the second part, AGV is called to transport workpieces, and an improved ant colony algorithm is used to generate the initial path of AGV. In the third part, to avoid path conflicts between running AGVs, the authors propose a simple priority-based waiting strategy to avoid collisions.
Findings
The experiment shows that the solution can effectively deal with job scheduling and multiple AGV operation problems in the workshop.
Originality/value
In this paper, a collaborative work algorithm is proposed, which combines the job scheduling and AGV running problem to make the research results adapt to the real job environment in the workshop.
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Xiuyun Yang and Qi Han
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…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Practical implications
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.
Social implications
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.
Originality/value
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.
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