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Chinese-listed firms with Belt and Road Initiatives (BRI) play a crucial role in advancing the outward investment policy of China. Board diversity can be vital, and intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) showing future earnings can build investor confidence in these firms. This study examines these two relationships in Chinese-listed firms with BRI projects during a predictable business outlook period (2019, pre-Covid period) and unpredictable business outlook period (2020, Covid period).

The study used least squares regression that analysed the target population comprising 79 listed Chinese firms with BRI projects in 2019 and 2020. The China Stock Market and Accounting Research (CSMAR) database provided board diversity data. Analysing annual reports using content analysis provided the ICD data, collected by following an established intellectual capital (IC) coding framework in the literature. After collecting board-related data, the study calculated the diversity between boards in firms (diversity of boards – DOB) using cluster analysis. The study estimated the diversity within each board (diversity in boards – DIB) using Blau's Index.

The findings indicate that in the predictable business outlook environment, DOB positively associates with ICD, and DIB negatively associates with ICD. In the unpredictable business outlook environment, the DIB and DOB interaction negatively associates with ICD, and DOB positively associates with ICD.

The findings apply to Chinese-listed firms with BRI projects and further research is required to generalise findings beyond them. This study used annual reports to collect ICD, but a future study could examine BRI firms' social media and website disclosures. The attributes selected for board diversity dimensions can contribute to bounded findings, and future studies could expand the board diversity attributes included.

The findings provide insights into firms' board composition and structure associated with ICD.

This is one of the first studies providing empirical evidence about board diversity and ICD of Chinese-listed firms with BRI projects.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a DC-port voltage balance strategy realizing it by logic combination modulation (LCM). This voltage balance strategy is brief and high efficient, which can be used in many power electronic devices adopting the cascaded H-bridge rectifier (CHBR) such as power electronic transformer (PET).

The CHBR is typically as a core component in the power electronic devices to implement the voltage or current conversion. The modulation method presented here is aiming to solve the voltage imbalance problem occurred in the CHBR with more stable work station and higher reliability in ordinary operating conditions. In particular, by changing the switch states smoothly and quickly, the DC-port voltage can be controlled as the ideal value even one of the modules in CHBR is facing the load-removed problem.

By using the voltage balance strategy of LCM, the problem of voltage imbalance occurring in three-phase cascaded rectifiers has been solved properly. With the lower modulation depth, the efficiency of the strategy is shown to be better and stronger. The strategy can work reliably and quickly no matter facing the problem as load-removed change or the ordinary operating conditions.

The limitation of the proposed DC-port voltage balance strategy is calculated and proved, in a three-module CHBR, the LCM could balance the DC-port voltage while one module facing the load-removed situation under 0.83 modulation depth.

This paper provides a useful and particular voltage balance strategy which can be used in the topology of three-phase cascaded rectifier. The value of the strategy is that a brief and reliable voltage balance method in the power electronic devices can be achieved. What is more, facing the problem, such as load-removed, in outport, the strategy can response quickly with no switch jump and switch frequency rising.

Cross border trade, involving different business environments between the sellers’ and buyers’ countries, may result in conflicts because of asymmetry in the information structure across the borders. The International Chambers of Commerce (ICC) has laid down ground rules on terms of shipment and payment, enabling harmonization and standardization of business process, and fixing of responsibilities for international trade. The international commercial (INCO) terms by ICC define the duties, obligations and cost borne by the exporter and the importer. An exporter’s uncertainty looms once the goods cross his/her border. Therefore, there is a need for a smart contract that is secured, transparent, legitimate and trustworthy. The authors propose a blockchain technology-based smart global contract (BTGC) framework for international trade.

In this paper, the authors develop the framework based on value chain analysis (VCA) of international trade and an ontology-driven-blockchain-design approach. The paper analyzes the sequence of activities in the value chain of global trade, the terms of the contract, the data structure templates, the validation rules and the points-of-failure, and proposes the smart contract blockchain structure.

This paper proposes the BTGC framework considering the INCO terms 2020; it provides the validation rules and the probability of failures; and identifies the elements that cause the halting of contracts and conditions of creation of side blockchains. The framework also includes the governance of the BTGC system.

The proposed framework not only has implications at the firm level as it automates and secures a global sale contract but also is expected to harmonize the global-trade process as well. The developers may use the attributes, data structure templates and the rules identified in this paper for developing the GC software. Future research may consider using case analysis, class diagrams and the related steps for developing the blockchain software.

This paper proposes a complete value chain of global contract (GC) concerning exports, an ontology of GC and a blockchain-based smart-contract framework based on global standards. Besides, it specifies the elements of fraud (such as the non-integration of side chains) and uncertainty, i.e. the probability of failures. Such a framework will harmonize the global-trade process and build an international standards for smart GC based on blockchain technology (ISSGCBT), which is not yet done.