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The service environment of urban polyethylene (PE) pipes has a crucial influence on their long-term safety and performance. Based on the application and structural performance analysis of PE pipe failure cases, this study aims to investigate the impact of organic substances in the soil on the aging behavior of PE pipes by designing organic solutions with different concentrations, which are based on the composition of organic substances in the soil environment, and periodic immersion tests.

Soil samples in the vicinity of the failed pipes were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, sensitive organic substances were screened and soaking solutions of different concentrations were designed. After the soaking test, the PE pipe samples were analyzed using differential scanning calorimetry, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and other testing methods.

The performance difference between the outer surface and the middle of the cross section of PE pipes highlights the influence of the soil service environment on their aging. Different organic solutions can have varying impacts on the aging behavior of PE pipes when immersed. For instance, when exposed to amine organic solutions, PE pipes may have an increased weight and decreased material yield strength, although there is no reduction in their thermal or oxygen stability. On the contrary, when subjected to ether organic solutions, the surface of PE pipe specimens may be affected, leading to a reduction in material fracture elongation and a decrease in their thermal and oxygen stability. Furthermore, immersion in either amine or ether organic solutions may result in the production of hydroxyl and other aging groups on the surface of the material.

Understanding the potential impact of organic substances in the soil environment on the aging of PE pipe ensures the long-term performance and safety of urban PE pipe. This research approach will provide valuable insights into improving the durability and reliability of urban PE pipes in soil environments.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of corporate governance, investor sentiment and financial liberalization on downside systematic risk and the interplay of socio-political turbulence on this relationship through static and dynamic panel estimation models.

The evidence is based on a sample of 230 publicly listed non-financial firms from Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) over the period 2008–2018. Furthermore, this study analyzes the data through Blundell and Bond (1998) technique in the full sample as well sub-samples (big and small firms).

The authors document that corporate governance mechanism reduces the downside risk, whereas investor sentiment and financial liberalization increase the investors’ exposure toward downside risk. Particularly, the results provide some new insights that the socio-political turbulence as a moderator weakens the impact of corporate governance and strengthens the effect of investor sentiment and financial liberalization on downside risk. Consistent with prior studies, the analysis of sub-samples reveals some statistical variations in large and small-size sampled firms. Theoretically, the findings mainly support agency theory, noise trader theory and the Keynesians hypothesis.

Stock market volatility has become a prime area of concern for investors, policymakers and regulators in emerging economies. Primarily, the existence of market volatility is attributed to weak governance, irrational behavior of market participants, the liberation of financial policies and sociopolitical turbulence. Therefore, the present study provides simultaneous empirical evidence to determine whether corporate governance, investor sentiment and financial liberalization hinder or spur downside risk in an emerging economy. Furthermore, the work relates to a small number of studies that examine the role of socio-political turbulence as a moderator on the relationship of corporate governance, investor sentiment and financial liberalization with downside systematic risk.

Many entrepreneurs are able to manage their businesses within relatively contained and familiar geographical and cultural circles. With a world economy shrinking every day amid a flood of digital information, todayʼs entrepreneur is increasingly confronted with opportunities to consider new ways to secure vendors and recruit customers. Many unfamiliar possibilities emerge. Should the entrepreneur venture beyond “comfortable” surroundings to consider international connections? Specifically, what about China? How practical is this fetching business temptation of larger markets and lower-cost subcontractors? What are the social, trade, financial, and political issues? Should a “China strategy” be a true entrepreneurial offensive, or rather a defensive response to competition? Is this “China strategy” the promise of yet another entrepreneurial nirvana? Or is it perhaps again a case of “Be careful of what you wish for; it may really come true?”

This study aims to investigate the interconnectedness across the risk appetite of distinct investor types in Borsa Istanbul. This study also examines the causal impact of global implied volatility indices on the risk appetite of these investor groups.

The authors use a novel time-varying frequency connectedness framework of Chatziantoniou et al. and a new time-varying Granger causality test with a recursive evolving procedure by Shi et al. over June 2008 and July 2022.

The results show a high level of interconnectedness across the risk appetite of different investor types. The sizable spillovers to domestic types of investors either occur from professional or foreign investors, indicating the long-term dominant effect of foreign and more qualified investors on the domestic investors in Borsa Istanbul. The authors provide significant evidence of causality from the global implied volatility to the Borsa Istanbul risk appetite indices, which are getting stronger after the COVID-19 outbreak.

Unlike the previous studies, the authors analyze the risk appetite sub-indices of various types of investors to reveal behavioral distinctions and interconnectedness across them. The authors use a novel econometric framework to assess investors’ risk appetite in different investment horizons in a time-varying system. Together with volatility index (VIX), the authors also use volatilities of oil (OVX), gold (GVZ) and currency (EVZ), considering the information transmission not only from stock markets but also energy, metals and currency markets. The present data set covers significant financial crises, socioeconomic events and the COVID-19 outbreak.

Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.

Given that women around the world face more exclusion in terms of limited access to economic and innovation activities than men do, it is understandable that some female-led start-ups in weak institutional environments engage in bribery to help reduce the difficulties they encounter in the face of intense business competition. However, the link between bribery and product innovation performance is unclear. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between bribery and product innovation performance for female-led start-ups, as well as the roles of institutional support and self-control in this link.

This empirical study evaluates survey data from female-led manufacturing start-ups in China's Yangtze River Delta region to investigate the relationship between bribery and product innovation performance.

This research shows that bribery has an inverted U-shaped impact on product innovation performance in female-led manufacturing start-ups, meaning that the product innovation performance of these firms initially increases but then decreases as the bribery intensity (i.e. the frequency and amount of bribes) increases. The authors also focus on the roles of institutional support and self-control in this link, where the authors find that this relationship is steeper for firms with strong institutional support, as well as for individual female entrepreneurs who have high levels of self-control.

The findings of this study indicate that policymakers should undertake efforts to improve institutional quality (e.g. increasing clarity around decisions, providing more institutional support, etc.) and to guide female entrepreneurs to cultivate higher levels of self-control, as such efforts would reduce the appeal of, and the opportunity for, bribery.

To date, very few studies focus specifically on female-led enterprises in the field of bribery research. The research findings presented here on the effect of bribery in female-led start-ups on firm product innovation performance are useful to researchers, policymakers and businesspeople, as they provide a better understanding of bribery in female-led start-ups in China, which can also be extrapolated to encompass other transition economy contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to present the landscape of the cash-per-publication reward policy in China and reveal its trend since the late 1990s.

This study is based on the analysis of 168 university documents regarding the cash-per-publication reward policy at 100 Chinese universities.

Chinese universities offer cash rewards from USD30 to USD165,000 for papers published in journals indexed by Web of Science, and the average reward amount has been increasing for the past ten years.

The cash-per-publication reward policy in China has never been systematically studied and investigated before except for in some case studies. This is the first paper that reveals the landscape of the cash-per-publication reward policy in China.

Strengthening the combination of technology and finance can significantly promote the development of economy and society. Urbanization is a crucial standard to measure the economic and social development of a country and region, and urban regional planning based on science and technology finance has always been the focus of both domestic and foreign research institutions. Thus, this paper takes Mianyang, the first city of science and technology, as the object of research, and from the angle of the development process of Mianyang, investigates the three stages of the construction and development of this science and technology city. This study analyzes the characteristics of regional planning of Mianyang City and sums up the idea of relying on the old city to build another new district, which boosts the development of science and technology as well as the economy. From two specific angles (i.e., urban spatial function region planning and urban and rural planning), this paper thoroughly studies a multiscale planning scheme of Mianyang’s urban area in recent years by researching the local policy, system, finance, and society. Empirical measurement proves that reasonable planning and construction of the science and technology city Mianyang can accelerate the development process of the western region, effectively promoting the economic development of the surrounding areas of Sichuan and remarkably improving the overall quality of the regional economy of both Chongqing and Sichuan Provinces.

Prior research on green innovation has shown that institutional pressure stimulates enterprises to adopt green innovation. However, an institutional perspective does not explain why firms that face the same amount of institutional pressure execute different environmental practices and innovations. To address this research gap, the authors linked institutional theory with upper echelons theory and organization performance to build a comprehensive research model.

A total of 800 questionnaires were issued. The final usable questionnaires were 195, yielding a response rate of 24.38%. AMOS 23.0 was used to analyze the data and examine the relationships between the constructs in our model.

Institutional pressures affected both green innovation adoption (GIA) and the top management team's (TMT's) response. TMT's response influenced GIA. GIA was an important factor affecting firm performance. Furthermore, TMT's response mediated the relationship between institutional pressure and GIA. Institutional pressures indirectly affected green innovation performance but did not influence economic performance through GIA. Finally, TMT's response indirectly impacted firm performance through GIA.

The authors draw on institutional theory, upper echelons theory, and a performance-oriented perspective to explore the antecedents and consequences of GIA. This study has interesting implications for leaders and managers looking to implement green innovation and leverage it for firm performance to out compete with market rivals as well as to make the changes in collaboration with many other companies including market rivals to gain success in green innovation.