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An understanding about the criteria determining the successful application of green features, and the barriers to implementation is essential in order to promote and enhance green building development. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, the criteria determining the success of GBFs; and second, the barriers to implementing GBFs in Hong Kong.

A multi-method approach comprising a comprehensive questionnaire survey and a semi-structured group discussion with construction professionals, along with three case studies was adopted to address these two issues.

Findings suggest that although environmental performance is the most significant criterion, the living quality of occupants and the costs of green features play a crucial role in determining the success of their application. However, the environmental aspects of buildings are not sufficient for rating or determining the greenness level of a building. As for barriers, the green cost implications; the structural unsuitability of the current stock of old buildings; and the lack of financial incentives were found to be crucial barriers preventing the application of green features in the Hong Kong building sector.

GBFs have received extensive attentions by the academia and industry. This paper used a mix method approach by exploring success criteria and barriers to implementing green features in the building sector in Hong Kong. As green building development is still a contemporary subject of discussion, this study would be beneficial to decision makers as it identifies the criteria determining the success of green building adoption and barriers to implementation of such features. Hence, relevant stakeholders will have better understanding of the factors affecting the adoption of GBFs.

Regardless of the noteworthy growth in research and practice associating corporate social responsibility (CSR) with human resource management, little has been written in regard to one major dimension of CSR in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as CSR policies and practices are directed toward employees. The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a conceptual framework connecting socially responsible human resource management (SRHRM) to competitive performance that fits small business.

In order to get empirical evidence, structural equation modeling technique was applied on the data from 481 Spanish SMEs.

Results confirm both the direct contribution of SRHRM to business competitiveness and the multiple effects resulting from including two variables of additional interest for the relationship under study: employee’s commitment and relational marketing.

One of the main research limitations is that the paper only reflects the perceptions of owners/managers of SMEs. Although it was believed that the respondents give reliable and accurate information about the way their firms are involved in CSR practices, there is a possibility that they might provide incorrect or incomplete information.

The relationships proposed have never been studied before in context of SMEs. This is a worthwhile endeavor, which makes an empirical contribution.

Modelling has been a mainstay of conventional planning support tools (PSTs) since the 1960s and is instrumental in transport and land use planning decision-making. Numerous studies have been conducted to model the potential impacts of emerging vehicle automation and sharing technologies. A systematic review of recent modelling studies of autonomous and shared vehicles in the research literature examines the extent of their contribution to ‘smart’ mobility knowledge. The findings suggest a limited knowledge base from which to support future planning. PSTs that can offer more pluralistic, discursive, and transparent methods in order to understand and proactively shape a transition to a planned urban future are also needed.

An industrialized building system (IBS) is regarded as an effective residential building system that provides several benefits, including high quality, low cost, short time, good flexibility, reduced waste, and strong environmental performance. This system is considered to be valuable in promoting sustainable practices in China, where plans for urbanization have been established. However, the adoption of IBS in China is extremely limited. Potential risks exist and affect the attitudes of practitioners toward the use of this system. The purpose of this paper is to prioritize and analyze these risks and to develop corresponding strategies for mitigating these risks in China.

In total, 24 risks that inhibit the implementation of IBS in China are identified through literature review and examined through interviews for consistency. A questionnaire survey is conducted to quantify the significance of these risks. Cronbach’s coefficient α is employed to measure the internal consistency among the risk factors. The survey results are further analyzed using three case studies.

The top five risks identified are “poor cooperation between multi-interface,” “inappropriate design codes and standards for industrialized buildings,” “lack of management practices and experiences,” “enormous difficulty in achieving return on high initial investment,” and “lack of a quality monitoring mechanism for the production process.” The findings emphasize the government’s leading role in promoting the new building system in its introduction and enforcement of adequate policies and regulations. Practitioners are also instrumental in establishing proper understanding and knowledge of IBS and its application.

This study bridges the knowledge gaps on risk identification for implementing IBS in China. The findings provide practitioners and decision makers with valuable references for adopting adequate risk management methods and policies to promote IBS in China.

The exact criteria used by state governors for choosing opportunity zones (OZs) are not publicly available. This paper aims to examine whether state governors selected the most distressed communities, or those with the highest proportions of minorities, as OZs.

This paper compares the distressed communities chosen as OZs in states throughout the country to an equal number of those eligible distressed communities but not selected. Moreover, this paper uses regression analysis to determine whether the poverty rate, median family income, population, percentage of population that is minority and the percentage of population that is African American are significant explanatory factors in the choice of OZs.

After describing the tax incentives for investing in OZs, this paper documents that governors did not select many of the most distressed communities, or those with high proportions of minorities, in their individual states.

This paper describes in some detail the way in which investors may generate tax benefits by investing in eligible property or businesses in OZs. It also examines the extent to which the degree of poverty and the percentage of the population that is minority (and African American) were key factors in the selection of OZs. It arises an issue that the chosen communities are not necessarily those most in need of more investment or those heavily populated by minorities, particularly African Americans.

The safety and reliability of high-speed trains rely on the structural integrity of their components and the dynamic performance of the entire vehicle system. This paper aims to define and substantiate the assessment of the structural integrity and dynamical integrity of high-speed trains in both theory and practice. The key principles and approaches will be proposed, and their applications to high-speed trains in China will be presented.

First, the structural integrity and dynamical integrity of high-speed trains are defined, and their relationship is introduced. Then, the principles for assessing the structural integrity of structural and dynamical components are presented and practical examples of gearboxes and dampers are provided. Finally, the principles and approaches for assessing the dynamical integrity of high-speed trains are presented and a novel operational assessment method is further presented.

Vehicle system dynamics is the core of the proposed framework that provides the loads and vibrations on train components and the dynamic performance of the entire vehicle system. For assessing the structural integrity of structural components, an open-loop analysis considering both normal and abnormal vehicle conditions is needed. For assessing the structural integrity of dynamical components, a closed-loop analysis involving the influence of wear and degradation on vehicle system dynamics is needed. The analysis of vehicle system dynamics should follow the principles of complete objects, conditions and indices. Numerical, experimental and operational approaches should be combined to achieve effective assessments.

The practical applications demonstrate that assessing the structural integrity and dynamical integrity of high-speed trains can support better control of critical defects, better lifespan management of train components and better maintenance decision-making for high-speed trains.

The CEEQUAL certification system promotes sustainable development (SD) principles in infrastructure construction, with 12 categories of criteria and indicators. ENVISION assigns 60 points to five categories, while Green Guide is divided into seven classifications. SD certification requires 11 requirements, including an ecological assessment procedure, life-cycle costing assessment, quality control plan, noise mitigation plan, waste management plan, pollution prevention plan, low impact development, pavement management system, site maintenance plan, and educational outreach. SD certification technique provides 8 critical criteria, 153 standards, 17 stringent prerequisites, and 8 categories of points. Culp (2011) developed a grading system to incorporate SD principles into infrastructure projects; Shen et al. (2011) explored significant assessment parameters for the SD of infrastructure projects using the fuzzy set method; Lui and Cui (2012) studied SD frameworks for building projects, Montgomery et al. (2014) and Lim (2009) identified 77 major SD indicators based on a comprehensive review of the relevant literature, and the Transport Division of New South Wales established a Transportation Project Sustainability Framework to ensure the long-term viability of their transportation network and the continuous improvement of their environmental and sustainability performance. Assah Amiril (2014) revealed a global network of 27 SD criteria produced by professionals, for-profit and non-profit organizations, divided into five groups: ecological, financial, sociological, engineering, asset use, and project management. The most important details in this study are that 57 indicators were categorized into eight types, weighted according to their respective impacts, and the influence of each component on SD was evaluated using a 100-dimensional scale. This study investigated the eight criteria and the impact of three additional criteria (public participation, climate change response, and stakeholder management). This chapter examined the criteria and indicators of SD criteria and indicators for road infrastructure development in developing countries. The most important findings are that the CEEQUAL, Ugwu, Haupt, and Lim models are the most comprehensive theoretical models of SD requirements for infrastructure design, and that all frameworks and models promote the sharing, promotion, and acknowledgement of SD concepts.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the causal effect of high-speed railways (HSRs) and investigate the affecting channels; the second purpose is to examine how HSRs change the distribution of economic activity across cities and sectors.

A difference-in-difference strategy is implemented to estimate the impact of recently built HSRs on local economic performance in China, exploiting the geography and time variations in HSR operations.

Using panel data from China’s City Statistical Yearbook 2001–2019, the authors find that HSRs lead to a significant increase in cities’ gross domestic product (GDP) and GDP per capita, but the authors do not find any significant change in GDP growth. This conclusion still holds true after the authors address the endogeneity problems. A mechanism analysis shows that HSRs improve local economic performance mainly by increasing fixed asset investment. The authors also find that the HSR investment is a policy that favors metropolitan areas due to the larger increase in the GDP for larger cities and with HSRs, the industrial and service sectors will further agglomerate in larger cities.

The authors contribute to the literature in several ways. First, this paper improves the estimation strategy in identifying the HSR impact on the local economic performance. Second, this paper investigates the affecting channels of HSRs. This paper proves that HSRs in China promote the cities’ economic performance mainly by increasing the fixed asset investment. Third, this study provides evidence for the new economic geography models pioneered by Krugman (1991).

Given that value exchange in virtually every sector of the economy is increasingly dominated by software, the goals of this chapter are to bring software to the attention of the academic marketing community, to discuss the unusual product attributes of software, and to therefore suggest some research topics related to software as a product attribute. Software allows service to be physically stored and allows physical objects to perform services. Managing products that have evolved into software products creates difficult challenges for managers as software does not resemble either tangible goods or intangible services in terms of production, operations, cost structure, or prescribed strategy. Every time a business replaces an employee with an e-service interaction, and every time a business adds a line of code to a previously inert object, the nature of that business changes. And as software gets more capable, its nature as a product changes as well by adding unique product characteristics summarized as complexity, intelligence, autonomy, and agency.