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Drawing on bargaining power and the inequality aversion perspective, this study aims to probe employees’ influence on addressing income inequality between top executives and nonexecutive employees. Meanwhile, it examines the moderating role of employee-related factors and plan attributes.

This study uses a staggered difference-in-differences design with a propensity scoring match approach and verification of the parallel trend assumption to test the hypotheses.

The results support the hypothesis that employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) significantly reduce within-firm income inequality. The negative effect is amplified by both the presence of trade unions and the unemployment rate at the regional level, as well as the duration of the lock-in period and the scale of participants within the stock ownership plan.

This study has implications for income inequality research and ESOP design and provides theoretical support for policymakers and corporate governance.

This study contributes to the literature on income inequality by examining the implementation of ESOPs from the employee perspective. Furthermore, it extends the current literature by investigating the strengthening effects of regional factors and ESOP attributes on the relationship between ESOPs and income inequality. The conclusions provide new empirical evidence to promote the effective implementation of ESOPs by combining internal and external factors.

This study aims to explore the spillover effects of supply chain corruption practices (SCCPs) on stock returns along the supply chain and within the industry. Specifically, it investigates how SCCPs affect the stock returns of corrupt firms' bystander supply chain partners and industry peers, both of which are not involved in the SCCPs.

The authors employ the event study methodology to quantify SCCPs' spillover effects in terms of abnormal stock returns. The analysis is based on 117 SCCPs occurring in China between 2014 and 2021.

The event study results show that SCCPs have negative effects on the stock returns of corrupt firms' bystander supply chain partners. Such negative effects are more pronounced for bystander buyers than bystander suppliers. However, SCCPs do not have a significant impact on the stock returns of corrupt firms' industry peers. Additional analysis further suggests that SCCPs are more likely to affect the stock returns of domestic rather than overseas bystander supply chain partners.

This study is the first attempt to thoroughly examine the spillover effects of SCCPs along the supply chain and within the industry, advancing the understanding of the financial consequences of SCCPs and providing important implications for future research and practices related to supply chain corruption.

Using the Shanghai pilot free trade zone (SPFTZ) as the testing ground for further reform and opening up,the links between global value chain (GVC) and pilot free trade zone (PFTZ) programs are mutually reinforcing. GVC creates opportunities for companies to use PFTZ to reduce their costs and increase their competitiveness, while PFTZ can facilitate the movement of goods within GVC and promote the development of GVC by attracting foreign investment. Overall, in SPFTZ, the industrial structure is promoted due to trade and investment facilitation, innovation promotion, and comprehensive service platform inside SPFTZ.

This study examined industrial upgrading in GVC (IUGVC) using five indicators under three quantitative dimensions: product, process, and skill upgrading. Difference-in-Differences (DID) model is employed for the impact assessment of SPFTZ. Parallel trend analysis and Granger causality analysis are performed to check the reliability of DID outcome. Finally, robustness test using exogenous control variables are carried out.

A positive impact of SPFTZ is found on IUGVC, which is due to promoting effect of SPFTZ on foreign direct investment and technological innovation. Based on the study's findings, policy recommendations are given, such as providing business support to enterprises operating inside a PFTZ.

From a GVC perspective, the impact of theSPFTZ establishment on IUGVC cannot be ignored, and is so far missing in the literature.

This study reveals the green building development path and analyzes the optimal government subsidy equilibrium through evolutionary game theory and numerical simulation. This was done to explore the feasible measures and optimal incentives to achieve higher levels of green building in China.

First, the practice of green building in China was analyzed, and the specific influencing factors and incentive measures for green building development were extracted. Second, China-specific evolutionary game models were constructed between developers and homebuyers under the market regulation and government incentive mechanism scenarios, and the evolutionary paths were analyzed. Finally, real-case numerical simulations were conducted, subsidy impacts were mainly analyzed and optimal subsidy equilibriums were solved.

(1) Simultaneously subsidizing developers and homebuyers proved to be the most effective measure to promote the sustainability of green buildings. (2) The sensitivity of developers and homebuyers to subsidies varied across scenarios, and the optimal subsidy level diminished marginally as building greenness and public awareness increased. (3) The optimal subsidy level for developers was intricately tied to the building greenness benchmark. A higher benchmark intensified the developer’s responsiveness to losses, at which point increasing subsidies were justified. Conversely, a reduction in subsidy might have been appropriate when the benchmark was set at a lower level.

The expeditious advancement of green buildings holds paramount importance for the high-quality development of the construction industry. Nevertheless, the pace of green building expansion in China has experienced a recent deceleration. Drawing insights from the practices of green building in China, the exploration of viable strategies and the determination of optimal government subsidies stand as imperative initiatives. These endeavors aim to propel the acceleration of green building proliferation and materialize high-quality development at the earliest juncture possible.

The model is grounded in China’s green building practices, which makes the conclusions drawn more specific. Furthermore, research results provide practical references for governments to formulate green building incentive policies.

Most of the emphasis in the green building literature on the green performance of buildings has been on optimizing energy and resource efficiency. Admittedly, from the perspective of the sustainable construction industry, making optimally energy and resource efficiency, often seen as a technical challenge, has a premise role in green building projects. However, green buildings need to optimally meet the health, well-being and comfort requirements of their occupants and their environmental quality targets. In that context, perceived quality is a crucial determinant of occupant satisfaction and can play a critical role in the user-oriented improvement of the green performance of buildings. While previous research has highlighted issues related to occupant satisfaction, none of them examines green buildings from a perceived quality perspective. Therefore, the study attempts to fill this research gap.

Firstly, to reveal the positive and negative satisfaction of the building occupants according to the green building features, the review of previous research in the related literature is supplemented by an exploratory study of case studies evaluating occupant satisfaction in green buildings. Then, a conceptual framework is proposed to link perceived quality and green building features towards occupant satisfaction.

A review of the case studies in 49 research articles has shown deficiencies in a comprehensive understanding and approach to the perceived quality of green buildings. In response, the development of a framework for conceptual interrelationships may provide a pathway for more detailed quality assessments for future research. In this study, the proposed conceptual framework has the potential to provide a conceptual basis for future models in determining the relationship between quality expectations and quality experiences in green buildings. It can also serve as a constructive approach for assessing occupant satisfaction in the quality-driven improvements of green buildings and further investigation of the importance of various quality cues, quality attributes and their interactions.

This study aims to incorporate green building features and perceived quality concepts into a framework that can form the basis for assessing occupant satisfaction in green buildings. The ultimate goal of the proposed conceptual framework is to generate an insight that can contribute to rethinking the perceived quality of green buildings and developing more occupant-driven solutions for future green buildings.

In the supply chain disruption risk, the issue of supplier evaluation and selection is solved by an extended VIKOR method based on regret theory.

Considering the influence of irrational emotions of decision makers, an evaluation model is designed by the regret theory and VIKOR method, which makes the decision-making process closer to reality.

The paper has some innovations in the evaluation index system and evaluation model construction. The method has good stability under the risk of supply chain interruption.

The mixed evaluation information is used to describe the attributes, and the evaluation index system is constructed by the combined method of the social network analysis method and the literature research method to ensure the accuracy and accuracy of the extracted attributes. The issue of supplier evaluation and selection is solved by an extended VIKOR method based on regret theory.

The electrical properties of piezoelectric vibrators have a crucial influence on the operating state of ultrasonic motors. In order to solve the problem that the current piezoelectric vibrator generates a large amount of heat during vibration to degrade its performance, which in turn affects the normal operation of ultrasonic motors, this paper prepares a novel piezoelectric vibrator and tests its maximum vibration velocity under the working condition, which is more than twice as much as that of the current commercial PZT-8.

The crystal structures of the samples were analyzed by using an X-ray diffractometer. For microstructure observation, samples were observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The quasi-static piezoelectric coefficient meter (ZJ-3AN) was used for piezoelectric measurement. Dielectric properties were measured by utilizing an impedance analyzer (Agilent 4294A) with a laboratory heating unit. Ferroelectric hysteresis loops were obtained using a ferroelectric analyzer (Radiant, Multiferroic 100). A Doppler laser vibrometer (Polytec PSV-300F, Germany) and a power amplifier were used for piezoelectric vibration measurements, during which the temperature rise was determined by an infrared radiation thermometer (Victor 303, China).

The ceramics exhibit enhanced piezoelectric performance at 0.1–0.4 mol% of Yb doping contents. The ceramic of 0.4 mol% Yb reaches the maximal internal bias field and presents a larger mechanical quality factor of 1,692 compared with that of 0.2 mol% Yb-doped ceramic, in spite of a slightly decreased dielectric constant of 439 pC/N, the unit of the piezoelectric constant, which is the ratio of the local charge (pC) to the frontal force (N) and electromechanical coupling coefficient of 0.63. The vibrator with this large mechanical quality factor ceramic displays a vibration velocity of up to 0.81 m/s under the constraint of 20 °C temperature rising, which is much higher than commercial high-power piezoelectric ceramics PZT-8.

The enhanced high-power properties of the piezoelectric vibrator by Yb doping may provide a potential application for the high-performance USM and offer the possibility of long-term stable operation under high power for special equipment like USM. In the subsequent phase of research, the novel PZT-based high-power piezoelectric vibrator can be utilized in the USM, and the motor's performance will be evaluated under aerospace conditions to objectively assess the reliability of the piezoelectric vibrator.

The purpose of this paper is to establish a two-stage grey cloud clustering model under the panel data for the multi-attribute clustering problem with three-parameter interval grey number to evaluation of agricultural drought resistance grade of 18 cities in Henan Province.

The clustering process is divided into two stages. In the first stage: Combining variance and time degree, the time weight optimization model is established. Applying the prospect theory, the index weight optimization model is established. Then, with the help of grey possibility function, the first stage of grey cloud clustering evaluation is carried out. In the second stage: the weight vector group of kernel clustering is constructed, and the grey class of the object is determined. A two-stage grey cloud clustering model under the panel data for the multi-attribute clustering problem is proposed.

This paper indicates that 18 cities in Henan Province are divided into four categories. The drought capacity in Henan province is high in the east and low in the west, high in the south and low in the north and the central region is relatively stable. The drought is greatly affected by natural factors. And the rationality and validity of this model is illustrated by comparing with other methods.

This paper provides a practical method for drought resistance assessment, and provides theoretical support for farmers to grasp the drought information timely and improve the drought resistance ability.

The model in this paper solves the situation of ambiguity and randomness to some extent with the help of grey cloud possibility function. Moreover, the time weight of time degree and variance are used to reduce the volatility and the degree of subjective empowerment. Considering the risk attitude of the decision makers, the prospect theory is applied to make the index weight more objective. The rationality and validity of the model are illustrated by taking 18 cities in Henan Province as examples.

Power plant projects are very complex and encounter serious cost overruns worldwide. Their cost overrun risks are not independent but interrelated in many cases, having structural relationships among each other. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to establish the complex structural relationships of risks involved.

In total, 76 published articles from the previous literature are reviewed using the content analysis method. Three risk networks in different phases of power plant projects are depicted based on literature review and case studies. The possible methods of solving these risk networks are also discussed.

The study finds critical cost overrun risks and develops risk networks for the procurement, civil and mechanical works of power plant projects. It identifies potential models to assess cost overrun risks based on the developed risk networks. The literature review also revealed some research gaps in the cost overrun risk management of power plants and similar infrastructure projects.

This study will assist project risk managers to understand the potential risks and their relationships to prevent and mitigate cost overruns for future power plant projects. It will also facilitate decision-makers developing a risk management framework and controlling projects’ cost overruns.

The study presents conceptual risk networks in different phases of power plant projects for comprehending the root causes of cost overruns. A comparative discussion of the relevant models available in the literature is presented, where their potential applications, limitations and further improvement areas are discussed to solve the developed risk networks for modeling cost overrun risks.

This paper aims to explore the pathways of carbon transfer in 200 US corporations along with the motivations that drive such transfers. The particular focus is on each firm’s embeddedness in the global value chain (GVC) and the influence of environmental law, operational costs and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The insights gleaned bridge a gap in the literature surrounding GVCs and corporate carbon transfer.

The methodology comprised a two-step research approach. First, the authors used a two-sided fixed regression to analyse the relationship between each firm’s embeddedness in the GVC and its carbon transfers. The sample consisted of 217 US firms. Next, the authors examined the influence of environmental law, operational costs and CSR on carbon transfers using a quantitative comparison analysis. These results were interpreted through the theoretical frameworks of the GVC and legitimacy theory.

The empirical results indicate positive relationships between carbon transfers and GVC embeddedness in terms of both a firm’s position and its degree. From the quantitative comparison, the authors find that the pressure of environmental law and operational costs motivate these transfers through the value chain. Furthermore, CSR does not help to mitigate transfers.

The findings offer insights for policymakers, industry and academia to understand that, with globalised production and greater value creation, transferring carbon to different parts of the GVC – largely to developing countries – will only become more common. The underdeveloped nature of environmental technology in these countries means that global emissions will likely rise instead of fall, further exacerbating global warming. Transferring carbon is not conducive to a sustainable global economy. Hence, firms should be closely regulated and given economic incentives to reduce emissions, not simply shunt them off to the developing world.

Carbon transfer is a major obstacle to effectively reducing carbon emissions. The responsibilities of carbon transfer via GVCs are difficult to define despite firms being a major consideration in such transfers. Understanding how and why corporations engage in carbon transfers can facilitate global cooperation among communities. This knowledge could pave the way to establishing a global carbon transfer monitoring network aimed at preventing corporate carbon transfer and, instead, encouraging emissions reduction.

This study extends the literature by investigating carbon transfers and the GVC at the firm level. The authors used two-step research approach including panel data and quantitative comparison analysis to address this important question. The authors are the primary study to explore the motivation and pathways by which firms transfer carbon through the GVC.