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With numerous and ambiguous sets of information and often conflicting requirements, construction management is a complex process involving much uncertainty. Decision makers may be challenged with satisfying multiple criteria using vague information. Fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making (FMCDM) provides an innovative approach for addressing complex problems featuring diverse decision makers’ interests, conflicting objectives and numerous but uncertain bits of information. FMCDM has therefore been widely applied in construction management. With the increase in information complexity, extensions of fuzzy set (FS) theory have been generated and adopted to improve its capacity to address this complexity. Examples include hesitant FSs (HFSs), intuitionistic FSs (IFSs) and type-2 FSs (T2FSs). This chapter introduces commonly used FMCDM methods, examines their applications in construction management and discusses trends in future research and application. The chapter first introduces the MCDM process as well as FS theory and its three main extensions, namely, HFSs, IFSs and T2FSs. The chapter then explores the linkage between FS theory and its extensions and MCDM approaches. In total, 17 FMCDM methods are reviewed and two FMCDM methods (i.e. T2FS-TOPSIS and T2FS-PROMETHEE) are further improved based on the literature. These 19 FMCDM methods with their corresponding applications in construction management are discussed in a systematic manner. This review and development of FS theory and its extensions should help both researchers and practitioners better understand and handle information uncertainty in complex decision problems.

Stiffened plates have been widely used in civil, marine, aerospace engineering. As a kind of thin-walled structure operating in complex environment, stiffened plates mostly undergo a variety of dynamic loads, which may sometimes result in large-amplitude vibration. Additionally, initial stresses and geometric imperfections are widespread in this type of structure. Furthermore, it is universally known that initial stresses and geometric imperfections may affect mechanical behavior of structures severely, particularly in dynamic analysis. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to study the stress variation rule of a stiffened plate during large-amplitude vibration considering initial stresses and geometric imperfections.

The initial stresses are represented in the form of initial bending moments applying to the stiffened plate, while the initial geometric imperfections are considered by means of trigonometric series, and they are assumed existing in the plate along the z-direction exclusively. Then, the dynamic equilibrium equations of the stiffened plate are established using Lagrange’s equation as well as aforementioned conditions. The nonlinear differential equations of motion are simplified as a two-degree-of-freedom system by considering 1:2 and 1:3 internal resonances, respectively, and the multiscale method is applied to solve the equations.

The influence of initial stresses on the plate, stresses during internal resonance is remarkable, while that is moderate for initial geometric imperfections. (Upon considering the existence of initial stresses or geometric imperfections, the stresses of motivated modes are less than the primary mode for both and internal resonances). The influence of bidirectional initial stresses on the plate’s stresses during internal resonance is more remarkable than that of unidirectional initial stresses. The coupled vibration in 1%3A2 internal resonance is fiercer than that in internal resonance.

Stiffened plates are widely used in engineering structures. However, as a type of thin-walled structure, stiffened plates vibrate with large amplitude in most cases owning to their complicated operation circumstance. In addition, stiffened plates usually contain initial stresses and geometric imperfections, which may result in the variation of their mechanical behavior, especially dynamical behavior. Based on the above consideration, this paper studies the nonlinear dynamical behavior of stiffened plates with initial stresses and geometrical imperfections under different internal resonances, which is the originality of this work. Furthermore, the research findings can provide references for engineering design and application.

With the development of e-commerce and mobile payment, platform sales become unstoppable, and many manufacturers also encroach on online market by establishing direct selling channels. Channel conflict intensifies in online market and quality differentiation and is widely used in business practice as an effective way to alleviate such a competition. The authors study a retail platform's sales strategy and interactions with an upstream manufacturer's encroachment strategy in this paper. Unlike most online marketplace and encroachment research, product quality selection is also engaged in the present research to capture the motivation above.

The authors analyze a game-theoretical model that the platform as the first/second mover participates in strategic decision-making, and then jointly decides the product quality level with manufacturer.

The authors find that encroachment always profits the manufacturer and almost hurts the platform. Interestingly, the first-mover advantage can help the platform guide the manufacturer encroachment and promote a “win–win” situation when product quality level is relatively slight or obvious. Nevertheless, the second-mover advantage can help the platform alleviate the profit loss caused by encroachment when product quality level is moderate. Furthermore, suffered from encroachment loss, the platform can make a credible threat by sales termination to restrain manufacturer encroachment.

This paper innovatively explores the strategic interaction between manufacturer encroachment and quality differentiation in a platform supply chain, and further analyzes the first-mover advantage in this interaction, which fills the gaps of previous platform research and has great significances to enterprise production and operational decision in business practice.

Sustainable development is inseparable from rational and responsible use of resources and promotion of green entrepreneurship. The contemporary green development agenda encompasses climate, economic, technical, social, cultural, and political dimensions. International efforts to greening the global development are conducted by the major economies, including China as the world’s largest consumer of energy and the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. China is aware of its environmental problems, as well as of its part of the overall responsibility for the accomplishment of the sustainable development goals. By means of the decarbonization efforts, the latter are integrated both into the national development agenda (the concept of ecological civilization) and China’s international initiatives (the greening narrative within the Belt and Road Initiative). Over the past decade, China has made a breakthrough on the way to promoting green entrepreneurship and greening of its development (better quality of air and water, renewable energy, electric vehicles, and organic farming). On the other hand, emissions remain high, agricultural land loses productivity, and freshwater resources degrade due to climate change. In conventional industries (oil, coal mining, and electric and thermal energy), decarbonization faces an array of impediments. In this chapter, the authors summarize fundamental provisions of China’s approach to building an ecological civilization and measures to reduce emissions and achieve the carbon neutrality status within the nearest decades. The analysis of obstacles to the decarbonization of the economy and possible prospects for the development of green entrepreneurship summarizes China’s practices for possible use in other countries.

Although the wind power industry has been booming in China during the last decade, the development of wind turbine aftermarket service is still lagging behind, which seriously affects the operational efficiency of wind farms. If wind turbine manufacturers get involved in the aftermarket, the service pricing policy will impact the profits of both the manufacturer and the wind farm. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss an optimal service pricing strategy in the wind turbine aftermarket and design a method to improve electricity generation efficiency through service contract design. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In order to decide the maintenance quantity and channel effort level, the authors design a normal Stackelberg game and an efficiency value-added revenue-sharing contract and discuss two kinds of revenue increment sharing models under situations, in which the supply chain’s leaders are the wind farm and the wind turbine manufacturer, respectively.

The results show that in either case, there exist optimal power generation revenue-sharing ratios that can maximize profit. At the same time, the authors outline an optimal service pricing policy, maintenance demand policy and channel service effort-level policy. The results summarize the influences of wind aftermarket services on wind farms’ and wind turbine manufacturers’ profit, which provides managerial insights into the process of manufacturing servitization.

The manufacturer’s channel effort level will influence the power generation increments very much, so the authors have developed a mechanism to stimulate the manufacturer improving the efficiency of aftermarket services.

Taking the power generation increment revenue as the profit increment function, the authors discuss the influence of service price on the profit increment of the wind farm and the wind turbine manufacturer and also consider the influence of service price on the wind farms maintenance quantity and wind turbine manufacturers channel effort level.

This chapter examines China’s corporate governance and accounting environment that shapes the adoption of internationally acceptable principles and standards. Specifically, it examines international influences, including supranational organizations; foreign investors and international accounting firms; domestic institutional influences, including the political system, economic system, legal system, and cultural system; and accounting infrastructure. China’s convergence is driven by desired efficiency of the corporate sector and legitimacy of participating in the global market. Influenced heavily by international forces in the context of globalization, corporate governance and accounting practices are increasingly becoming in line with internationally acceptable standards and codes. While convergence assists China in obtaining legitimacy, improving efficiency is likely to be adversely affected given that corporate governance and accounting in China operate in an environment that differs considerably from those of Anglo-American countries. An examination of the corporate governance and accounting environment in China suggests heavy government involvement within underdeveloped institutions. While the Chinese government has made impressive progress in developing the corporate governance and accounting environment for the market economy, China’s unique institutional setting is likely to affect how the imported concepts are interpreted and implemented.

This paper explores the impact of both government subsidies and decision makers' loss-averse behavior on the determination of transportation build-operate-transfer (BOT) concession periods based on cumulative prospect theory (CPT). The prospect value of a transportation project under traffic risk can be formulated according to the value function for gains and losses and the decision weight for gains and losses. As an extra income for investors, government subsidy is designed for highly risky aspects of BOT transportation projects: uncertain initial traffic volumes and fluctuating growth rates.

A decision-making model determining the concession period of a transportation BOT project is proposed by using the Monte-Carlo simulation method based on CPT, and the effects of risky behaviors of private investors on concession period decision making are analyzed. A subsidy method related to the internal rate-of-return (IRR) corresponding to a specific initial traffic volume and growth rate is proposed. The case of an actual BOT highway project is examined to illustrate how the method proposed can be used to determine the concession period of a transportation BOT project considering decision makers' loss-averse behavior and government subsidy. Contingency analysis is discussed to cope with possible misestimating of key factors such as initial traffic volume and cost coefficients. Sensitivity analysis is employed to investigate the impact of CPT parameters on the concession period decisions. An actual BOT case which failed to attract private capital is introduced to show the practical application. The results are then interpreted to conclude this paper.

Based on comparisons drawn between a concession period decision-making model considering the psychological behaviors of decision makers and a model not considering them, the authors conclude that the concession period based on CPT is distinctly different from that of the loss-neutral model. The concession period based on CPT is longer than the loss-neutral concession period. That is, loss-averse private investors tend to ask for long concession periods to make up for losses they will face in the future. Government subsidies serve as extra income for investors, allowing appointed profits to be secured sooner. For the benefit side of contingency variables, the normal state of initial traffic volume, average annual traffic growth rate and bias degree and the government subsidy need to be paid close attention during the project life span. For the cost side of contingency variables, the annual operating cost variable has a significant impact on the length of predicted concession period, while the large-scale cost variable has minor impact.

With an actual BOT highway project, the determination of transportation BOT concession periods based on the psychological behaviors of decision makers is analyzed in this paper. As the psychological behaviors of decision makers heavily impact the decision-making process, the authors analyze their impacts on concession period decision making. Government subsidy is specifically designed for various states of initial traffic volume and fluctuating growth rates to cope with corresponding high risks and mitigate private investors' loss-averse behaviors. Contingency analysis and sensitivity analysis are discussed as the estimated values of parameters may not be authentic in actual situations.