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Diversity in boards has gained attention as a reflection of societal imbalances. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of diversity in terms of both gender and nationality in management boards of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on firm performance from an upper echelons perspective. The authors also examine how board-specific characteristics influence the structural makeup of boards in gender and nationality diversity terms.

The authors focus on the UK because of its individualistic society and flexible labour market and assess 309 SMEs in the manufacturing industry over 2009–2019. A 3-stage least squares (3SLS) estimator is used to analyse the data, the Shannon index to measure board diversity, return on assets as proxy for firm performance, and owner-manager presence, board member age and tenure are the board-specific characteristics of primary interest.

Both gender and nationality diversity contribute to firm performance and represent distinct upper echelon characteristics that change the cognitive and psychological dynamics of boards. Firms with larger boards do not perform better, but diverse boards reduce the narrowing view of CEOs. Yet the presence of owner-managers, despite their performance-enhancing contribution, holds firms back from benefitting from diversity as a strategic choice.

This study extends the upper echelons theory to include board diversity as an important aspect that should become more central in upper echelon thinking when understanding firm performance. The authors’ findings suggest that theoretical developments in search of understanding firm behaviour must proceed by accounting for diversity and not simply focusing on decision-making styles.

This study aims to examine why and when employees engage in creative deviance to develop creativity in China. Drawing on strain theory, the authors examined creative deviance engagement as a mediator and transformational leadership as a moderator of the distinct relationships between emotional and rational status-striving orientations and radical and incremental creativity.

Multisource survey data were collected from 126 team leaders and 446 employees in Chinese firms. Multilevel path analysis was used to test the hypotheses.

The results show that emotional status-striving orientation relates to creative deviance engagement, which, in turn, has a stronger relationship with radical creativity than with incremental creativity. Furthermore, creative deviance engagement mediates the indirect relationships between emotional status-striving orientation and radical and incremental creativity. Moreover, transformational leadership moderates the above indirect relationships.

This study is among the first attempts to empirically test the distinct relationships between creative deviance engagement and radical and incremental creativity and further examine how creative deviance engagement mediates the indirect relationships between status-striving orientations and radical and incremental creativity. In addition, the boundary condition of the indirect relationships is investigated. The findings provide valuable insights for the extant literature on status and employee creativity.

The purpose of this paper is to eliminate Part defects and enrich additive manufacturing of ceramics. Laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) experiments were carried to investigate the effects of laser parameters and selective oxidation of Titanium (mixed with TiO₂) on the microstructure, surface quality and melting state of Titania. The causes of several L-PBF parts defects were thoroughly analyzed.

Laser power and scanning speed were varied within a specific range (50–125 W and 170–200 mm/s, respectively). Furthermore, varying loads of Ti (1%, 3%, 5% and 15%) were mixed with TiO₂, which was selectively oxidized with laser beam in the presence of oxygen environment.

Part defects such as cracks, pores and uneven grains growth were widely reduced in TiO₂ L-PBF specimens. Increasing the laser power and decreasing the scanning speed shown significant improvements in the surface morphology of TiO₂ ceramics. The amount of Ti material was fully melted and simultaneously changed into TiO₂ by the application of the laser beam. The selective oxidation of Ti material also improved the melting condition, microstructure and surface quality of the specimens.

TiO₂ ceramic specimens were produced through L-PBF process. Increasing the laser power and decreasing the scanning speed is an effective way to sufficiently melt the powders and reduce parts defects. Selective oxidation of Ti by a high power laser beam approach was used to improve the manufacturability of TiO₂ specimens.

To fabricate high performance parts, this paper aims to systematically study the pores characteristics and their formation mechanisms in selective laser melting (SLM) AlSi10Mg.

Cubes of 10 × 10 × 5 mm were manufactured in different laser power, scan speed and scan space. Optical microscope (OM) and scanning electron microscopes (SEM) were used to observe morphology of pores.

Round or irregular pores were found in SLMed AlSi10Mg parts. All the round pores have smooth inner walls and locate in the melt pool. The formation mechanisms of the round pores are contributed to the evaporation of elements in the melt pool, H₂O, high laser energy input and hollow powder. Irregular pores have rough inner walls. Big scan space, unevenness of the upper surface, large layer thickness, spatter and oxide are the main reasons of generating irregular pores which outside the melt pool. Instability of keyhole leads to the irregular pores locate in the bottom of keyhole mode melt pool.

Relationship between pores and melt pool were studied systematically for the first time. Researches of pores characteristics and their formation mechanisms in SLMed AlSi10Mg would be a valuable reference for researchers to obtain an important insight into and control the defect in SLMed Al alloy.

This paper aims to study the impact of human resource heterogeneity on firms’ cash-holding policies.

The authors construct a proxy for human resource heterogeneity using the dissimilarity in employees’ skill structure between the firm and its peers in the same industry.

The authors report evidence that firms with heterogeneous human resources hold more cash than other firms. This effect is more pronounced in labor-intensive firms and firms more susceptible to hold-up by employees, i.e. firms located in regions with more labor disputes and firms surrounded by more external employment opportunities. In addition, the authors demonstrate that high cash holdings triggered by human resource heterogeneity reduce the scale and efficiency of firms’ capital investment.

This study highlights the role of human resource heterogeneity in determining firms’ cash policies. This paper adds to the understanding of labor adjustment costs within the firm and provides insights into firms’ cash-holding decisions.

This study aims to explore the relationships between consumer data vulnerability, peer privacy concerns and consumers' continued usage intention of sharing accommodation platforms, as well as the moderating effects of the various benefits perceived by consumers.

Data were collected from 327 consumers of sharing accommodation platforms in China. Partial least squares (PLS)-structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to test the research hypotheses.

The results suggest that both consumer data vulnerability and peer privacy concerns have negative effects on consumer's continued usage intention of sharing accommodation platforms, which can be further mitigated by consumer perceived economic, social and emotional benefits. This study also finds that consumer data vulnerability has a positive effect on consumer's peer privacy concerns.

This study gives that managers of sharing accommodation platforms a better understanding of how consumers respond to their data vulnerability on sharing accommodation platforms. In addition, this study also highlights the measures that platforms may employ to mitigate the negative influence of consumer data vulnerability and consumers' peer privacy concerns, as well as the measures to reduce consumers' peer privacy concerns.

While previous studies mainly examined the driving forces of consumers' engagement in sharing accommodation, this study focuses on the impediment. With communication privacy management theory to explore the relationships between consumer data vulnerability, peer privacy concerns and continued usage intention of sharing accommodation platforms, as well as the moderating effects of consumers' perceived benefits, this study facilitates a more comprehensive understanding of consumers' engagement in sharing accommodation.

This study aims to develop a measurement scale of tourism-led rural gentrification from the perspective of rural residents.

The procedure for developing the measurement scale included a thorough review of related literature on tourism-led rural gentrification and multiple stages of qualitative and quantitative investigations. A total of 1,080 rural residents in Huzhou and Huangshan participated in the project. The semi-structured interviews and questionnaire were applied to collect the data. This study analyzed the data with the methodologies of exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

The measurement scale developed in this study included seven dimensions: Accelerated Ecological Awareness, Individual Behavior, Rural Economic Development, Enhanced Living Standards, Talents and Demographic Changes, Human and Cultural Shift and Cohesive Community.

This measurement scale was developed and validated in China and may not be relevant in other contexts. The scale focuses on tourism-led rural gentrification only from the perspective of rural residents. The findings broaden the knowledge on tourism-led rural gentrification by researching the topic from the point of view of rural residents.

For policymakers and tourism enterprises, this study provides a valuable index for a full understanding of tourism-led rural gentrification. For investors, the research offers insights for priority investments to advance tourism development in rural regions.

This study is one of the few attempts to empirically measure tourism-led rural gentrification. The results improve on the knowledge about tourism-led rural gentrification in China.

本研究的主要目的是从居民视角开发和验证旅游引导的乡村绅士化测量量表。

开发和验证旅游引导的乡村绅士化测量量表主要包含两方面的工作：旅游引导的乡村绅士化相关文献梳理; 多阶段的定量和定性研究。本研究共邀请1080位研究对象参与调研, 并通过深度半结构访谈和调查问卷收集数据, 使用EFA、CFA和SEM等研究方法研究结果。

本研究开发和验证的测量量表包括7个维度：文明素养感知、经济发展感知、生活水平感知、发展环境感知、社会风尚感知、人居环境感知和社区秩序感知。

本研究基于中国背景开发和验证了旅游引导的乡村绅士化测量量表, 未验证该量表在其他国家或地区的普适性, 且仅从居民视角展开研究。我们的研究结果丰富了旅游引导的乡村绅士化内容。

对于政策制定者和旅游企业来说, 本研究为他们充分了解旅游引导的乡村绅士化提供了参考; 对投资者来说, 本研究为投资者投资提供了有价值的借鉴和参考。

本研究是测量旅游引导的乡村绅士化的重要尝试, 丰富了对中国旅游引导的乡村绅士化的认识。

旅游引导的乡村绅士化 居民感知 量表开发 量表验证

文章类型： 研究型论文

El objetivo principal del presente estudio es desarrollar y validar una escala de medición de gentrificación rural impulsada por el turismo desde la perspectiva de los residentes.

El desarrollo y la validación de la presente escala de medición consistió en dos tareas principales: un examen de la literatura relacionada con la gentrificación rural impulsada por el turismo; y múltiples etapas de investigación cuantitativa y cualitativa. Para este estudio, se invitó a un total de 1080 sujetos para participar de esta investigación, los datos se obtuvieron mediante entrevistas y cuestionarios semiestructurados en profundidad, y los resultados se han analizado mediante EFA, CFA y SEM.

La escala de medición desarrollada y validada en este estudio consta de 7 dimensiones: percepción de alfabetismo civilizacional, percepción de desarrollo económico, percepción de nivel de vida, percepción de entorno de desarrollo, percepción de costumbres sociales, percepción de asentamiento humano y percepción de orden comunitario.

Este estudio desarrolló y validó la escala de medición basada en un contexto chino, pero no se pudo generalizar la escala de medición en otros países o regiones. Esta investigación solo analiza el fenómeno de gentrificación rural impulsada por el turismo desde la perspectiva de los residentes. Nuestros resultados contribuyen a mejorar el contenido de la gentrificación rural impulsada por el turismo.

Para los responsables políticos y las empresas de turismo, la presente investigación constituye una referencia para que comprendan plenamente la gentrificación rural impulsada por el turismo; para los inversores, constituye una valiosa referencia de inversión.

Este estudio es un importante intento para medir la gentrificación rural impulsada por el turismo y contribuye a enriquecer la comprensión de la gentrificación rural impulsada por el turismo de China.

Gentrificación rural impulsada por el turismo, Percepción de los residents, Desarrollo de la escala, Validación de la escala

Trabajo de investigación

The outbreak of COVID-19 has become a major public health emergency worldwide. How to effectively guide public opinion and implement precise prevention and control is a hot topic in current research. Mining the spatiotemporal coupling between online public opinion and offline epidemics can provide decision support for the precise management and control of future emergencies.

This study focuses on analyzing the spatiotemporal coupling relationship between public opinion and the epidemic. First, based on Weibo information and confirmed case information, a field framework is constructed using field theory. Second, SnowNLP is used for sentiment mining and LDA is utilized for topic extraction to analyze the topic evolution and the sentiment evolution of public opinion in each coupling stage. Finally, the spatial model is used to explore the coupling relationship between public opinion and the epidemic in space.

The findings show that there is a certain coupling between online public opinion sentiment and offline epidemics, with a significant coupling relationship in the time dimension, while there is no remarkable coupling relationship in space. In addition, the core topics of public concern are different at different coupling stages.

This study deeply explores the spatiotemporal coupling relationship between online public opinion and offline epidemics, adding a new research perspective to related research. The result can help the government and relevant departments understand the dynamic development of epidemic events and achieve precise control while mastering the dynamics of online public opinion.

High-tech enterprises, as the national innovation powerhouses, have garnered considerable interest, particularly regarding their technological innovation capabilities. Nevertheless, prevalent research tends to spotlight the impact of individual factors on innovative behavior, with only a fraction adopting a comprehensive viewpoint, scrutinizing the causal amalgamations of precursor conditions influencing the overall innovation proficiency of high-tech enterprises.

This paper employs a hybrid approach integrating necessary condition analysis (NCA) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine the combinatorial effects of antecedent factors on high-tech enterprises' innovation output. Our analysis draws upon data from 46 listed Chinese high-tech enterprises. To promote technological innovation within high-tech enterprises, we introduce a novel perspective that emphasizes technological innovation networks, grounded in a network agents-structure-environment framework. These antecedents are government subsidy, tax benefits, customer concentration, purchase concentration rate, market-oriented index and innovation environment.

The findings delineate four configurational pathways leading to high innovative output and three pathways resulting in low production.

This study thereby enriches the body of knowledge around technological innovation and provides actionable policy recommendations.