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In light of university business English pedagogical innovation, this study reports an empirical study with 66 English major participants.

The study uses online survey and participant observation to investigate their practice-oriented motivation and needs, the perceptions of using vocational education and training pedagogy in business English teaching and the learning outcomes in a Chinese university context.

The study found participants with motivations to learn business and trade knowledge, develop practice-oriented abilities and the preferences of learning flexibly and autonomously. For the perceptions of using vocational education and training pedagogy, simulations of meetings and negotiations were recommended and the job-based competency development model was useful. Workplace simulation was also particularly suggested to bridge the gap between classroom and workplace. For learning outcomes, writing practices and workplace simulation were considered particularly useful. The learning gains were found in international trade correspondence writing. While the intention of continuing learning business English correspondence writing was identified, more opportunities should be created for more practice-oriented activities, such as internship or corporate visit.

Informed by vocational education and training theory, the study has important pedagogical, theoretical and policy implications for business English teaching in both China and worldwide contexts.

This study empirically examines the curvilinear relationship between top management team task-related demographic faultlines and over-investment, as well as how biodemographic faultlines and industrial environment moderate the curvilinear relationship between task-related demographic faultlines and over-investment.

The study designs the panel data from the listed companies of China's growth enterprises board (GEB) (set up by Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2009) in the period 2011–2016 and uses hierarchical regression analysis and grouping regression analysis in exploring the curvilinear relationship with the variables involved.

The study provides empirical insights into the relationship on top management team (TMT) task-related demographic faultlines and over-investment, as well as how biodemographic faultlines and industrial environment moderate the relationship between task-related demographic faultlines and over-investment. It suggests that the relationship between task-related demographic faultlines and over-investment is significantly inverted-U. Furthermore, biodemographic faultlines and industrial environment can strengthen the inverted-U relationship between TMT task-related demographic faultlines and over-investment.

The study investigates the influence of task-related demographic faultlines on firm over-investment. The sample is restricted to the listed companies on GEM in China and limited in size. It is also not concerned with the cross-culture contrastive analysis between the Chinese- and Western-listed companies.

The findings suggest that strong/weak TMT task-related demographic faultlines is beneficial in promoting rational investment, but medium TMT task-related demographic faultlines may lead to over-investment.

The study within the crossed-categorization theory, the study provides a contemporary research path by moderating biodemographic faultlines and industrial environments to explain the long-ignored impact of TMT faultlines within a new perspective of firm investment efficiency with a recent significant sample of new emerging countries (e.g. China).

Top executive hubris is associated with positive/negative outcome. Little is known about the antecedent of hubris in top management team (TMT) and how they can be weakened to capitalize on TMT size and market complexity. This paper aims to address these issues.

This study draws on the social information processing theory. Subsequently, it proposes and tests an inverted U-shaped relationship between task-related faultlines and top executive hubris. Top management team size and complexity can weaken the relationship between them. Panel data were collected longitudinally from 2011 to 2016 on China's listed firm on growth enterprises board.

Hierarchical regression analyses indicate that medium task-related faultlines experience stronger than weak and strong faultlines. TMT size and market complexity can weaken the inverted U-shaped relationship between them.

This study provides pioneering evidence for an inverted U-shaped relationship between task-related faultlines and top executive hubris. These findings inform practice by suggesting a tipping point of team faultlines.

The existing research rarely explains the value of authoritarian leadership in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The purpose of this study is to explore how authoritarian leadership facilitates employee followership behaviors of the SMEs in China by considering the moderating effects of cooperative goal interdependence and leader behavioral integrity.

This research tested hypotheses with a two-wave survey from a sample of 258 respondents from SMEs in China. Hypotheses are tested using hierarchical regression analyses.

Findings of the study have indicated the instrumental function of authoritarian leadership in facilitating employee followership behavior in SMEs. In particular, this study shows that the influence of authoritarian leadership on followership behavior was positively related when employees have high cooperative goal interdependence with authoritarian leaders, and when employees perceive a leader's high behavioral integrity.

The study will help SMEs to understand that authoritarian leadership should seek optimal levels of cooperative goals with employees and integrate achievement goals into their career development strategy to enhance their followership behavior. In addition, authoritarian leadership should strive to take actions consistent with their words to guarantee the relationship between achieving goals and sharing mutual goals with employees.

The study contributes to the literature by addressing an important yet under-researched area, i.e. the effectiveness of authoritarian leadership in SMEs. Authoritarian leadership, a demanding and controlling leadership style, is often criticized by scholars. This study elaborates on a three-way interaction implied by self-determination theory in predicting followership behavior. It specifies the different roles of two situational factors (cooperative goal interdependence and leader behavior integrity) in affecting employees' followership behavior.

Poor bending response is a major shortcoming of lower-order elements due to excessive representation of shear stress/strain field. Advanced finite element (FE) formulations for classical elasticity enhance the bending response by either nullifying or filtering some of the symmetric shear stress/strain modes. Nevertheless, the stress/strain field in Cosserat elasticity is asymmetric; consequently any attempt to nullify or filter the anti-symmetric shear stress/strain modes may lead to failure in the constant couple-stress patch test where the anti-symmetric shear stress/strain field is linear. This paper aims at enhancing the bending response of lower-order elements for Cosserat elasticity problems.

A four-node quadrilateral and an eight-node hexahedron are formulated by hybrid-stress approach. The symmetric stress is assumed as those of Pian and Sumihara and Pian and Tong. The anti-symmetric stress components are first assumed to be completely linear in order to pass the constant couple-stress patch test. The linear modes are then constrained with respect to the prescribed body-couple via the equilibrium conditions.

Numerical tests show that the hybrid elements can strictly pass the constant couple-stress patch test and are markedly more accurate than the conventional elements as well as the incompatible elements for bending problems in Cosserat elasticity.

This paper proposes a hybrid FE formulation to improve the bending response of four-node quadrilateral and eight-node hexahedral elements for Cosserat elasticity problems without compromising the constant couple-stress patch test.

Prior research showed that danwei, the work unit, was very important in determining workers' social, economic, and political lives in pre-reform urban China. In this chapter, we argue that danwei continues to be an agent of social stratification in contemporary urban China. Using data from a 1999 survey that we conducted in three large Chinese cities, Wuhan, Shanghai, and Xi'an, we assess the extent to which workers' socioeconomic well-being depends on the financial conditions of their danwei. Results show that the financial situation of danwei remains one of the most important determinants of earnings and benefits. However, the explanatory power of danwei's financial situation is much greater for earnings than for benefits.

The purpose of this paper is to improve the key quality performance of the terminal of earphone in an electronic company.

Sequential experimental designs are employed. Significant input variables are found through a full factorial design. Then a response surface model is constructed considering curvature in the linear model.

Optimized key input variables’ parameters are found using the response surface model. The key quality performance, coplanarity of the terminal of earphone has been improved.

Instead of running a full factorial design in the first stage, a fractional factorial may be used to reduce experimental runs.

The paper presents a good solution for reducing defects caused by large coplanarity of a kind of earphone terminal.

The methodology used in this case can be easily extended to similar cases.

Thirty years of rapid development and economic change have created organizations and work relations in China that would have been unthinkable at the start of transition. In December of 1978, the Chinese Communist Party agreed with Deng Xiaoping to allow agricultural privatization, a stark contrast to the communes of Mao Zedong's era. This change established the financial foundation that would lead to development in eastern, coastal cities and that would ultimately fuel an extraordinary transformation of China's economy and its global position. As a result, organizational structures have changed, and new organizational forms have emerged. There have also been dramatic changes in the way work organizations behave and in the nature and implications of work. This volume provides a glimpse into the state of organizations and work at the 30-year mark. The contributors are top scholars in the field, including many who have observed and studied China's transition for decades, who are drawing on some of the most up-to-date and innovative data sources available. The chapters are samples of the current work of these researchers that, taken together, provide a snapshot of the state of research on China's organizations and work behaviors as transition enters its fourth decade.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a gauge for the convergence of the deterministic particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to obtain an optimum upper bound for PSO algorithm and also developing a precise equation for predicting the rock fragmentation, as important aims in surface mines.

In this study, a database including 80 sets of data was collected from 80 blasting events in Shur river dam region, in Iran. The values of maximum charge per delay (W), burden (B), spacing (S), stemming (ST), powder factor (PF), rock mass rating (RMR) and D80, as a standard for evaluating the fragmentation, were measured. To check the performance of the proposed PSO models, artificial neural network was also developed. Accuracy of the developed models was evaluated using several statistical evaluation criteria, such as variance account for, R-square (R²) and root mean square error.

Finding the upper bounds for the difference between the position and the best position of particles in PSO algorithm and also developing a precise equation for predicting the rock fragmentation, as important aims in surface mines.

For the first time, the convergence of the deterministic PSO is studied in this study without using the stagnation or the weak chaotic assumption. The authors also studied application of PSO inpredicting rock fragmentation.

This paper aims to tackle the challenge topic of continuum structural layout in the presence of random loads and to develop an efficient robust method.

An innovative robust topology optimization approach for continuum structures with random applied loads is reported. Simultaneous minimization of the expectation and the variance of the structural compliance is performed. Uncertain load vectors are dealt with by using additional uncertain pseudo random load vectors. The sensitivity information of the robust objective function is obtained approximately by using the Taylor expansion technique. The design problem is solved using bi-directional evolutionary structural optimization method with the derived sensitivity numbers.

The numerical examples show the significant topological changes of the robust solutions compared with the equivalent deterministic solutions.

A simple yet efficient robust topology optimization approach for continuum structures with random applied loads is developed. The computational time scales linearly with the number of applied loads with uncertainty, which is very efficient when compared with Monte Carlo-based optimization method.