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Reverse supply chain (RSC) is one of the ways to handle product returns efficiently. Recovery of residual value from product returns also helps in achieving sustainability. Its successful implementation requires coordination among all the channel members involved in the activities, from the acquisition to collection to the disposition of returned products. This article aims to review the literature about coordination issues in the RSC.

A systematic literature review of 151 articles published during 2004–2021 is carried out. Theory, context and methodology (TCM) framework of the literature review is used to identify the research gaps for future research directions.

This study identifies the characteristics of RSC coordination. It includes channel structures; coordination mechanisms; performance measuring parameters; the methodology applied and explored industries. The review shows that game-theoretical modeling in RSC coordination is the most commonly used method to coordinate the channels. It was found that issues like disruption, fairness and corporate social responsibility are not explored in-depth and offer much potential for future research.

There are very limited studies on coordination issues in the RSC. The proposed articles add value by considering RSC issues from different strategic, government, consumers' behavior and functionality decision-making point of view.

The authors enrich and extend the existing institutional anomie theory (IAT) in the hope of sharpening the understanding of the joint effects of selected cultural values and social institutional changes on women's pre-entrant entrepreneurial attempts. The authors theorize that women are culturally discouraged to pursue pre-entrant entrepreneurial attempts or wealth accumulation in a specific culture. This discouragement creates an anomic strain that motivates women to deviate from cultural prescriptions by engaging in pre-entrant entrepreneurial attempts at a faster speed. Building on this premise, the authors hypothesize that changes in social institutions facilitate the means of achievement for women due to the potential opportunities inherent in such institutional changes.

Using a randomly selected sample of 1,431 registered active individual users with a minimum of 10,000 followers on a leading entertainment live-streaming platform in the People's Republic of China, the authors examined a unique mix of cultural and institutional changes and their effects on the speed of women's engagement in live-streaming platform activity.

The authors find support for the impact of the interaction between changes in social institution conditions and cultural values. Unexpectedly, the authors also find a negative impact of cultural values on women's speed of engaging in pre-entrant entrepreneurial attempts.

The authors add institutional change to the IAT framework and provide a novel account for the variation in the pre-entrant entrepreneurial attempts by women on the platform.

It is acknowledged that the firm and the family interact in the family firm system and that family identity can influence family business brand communication through affecting stakeholders' perception, raising a question of whether the firm can implement its effect on the communication of family business brands via family identity. To address this question, this research investigates how firm revenue influences family business branding via family harmony.

Data for this research were gathered from a survey of 327 Chinese family firms.

The results show that family harmony fully mediates the relationship between firm revenue and family business branding.

This study is the first to demonstrate that the firm has an indirect effect on family business branding via family identity, a contribution to family business brand literature. The findings also offer insights into the relationship between firm performance and family business branding. Additionally, this project has implications for research on family harmony in the family business.

Family business brand communication depends on the effect of the family on stakeholders' perception, and the family influences stakeholders differently, raising the question of whether family business branding varies across stakeholders. Drawing on social identity theory, this research classifies a family firm's stakeholders into family (in-group) and non-family (out-group) stakeholders and explores the communication of family business brands to these two groups of stakeholders.

Data for this research were gathered from a questionnaire survey of 327 Chinese family firms.

The results show that family business brand communication differs between family and non-family stakeholders. Additionally, family harmony has a positive relationship with family business branding to family stakeholders and an inverse U-shaped relationship with family business branding to non-family stakeholders.

This research is the first to demonstrate that family business brand communication varies across stakeholders and that the effect of family characteristics (family harmony in this research) on family business branding differs between stakeholders. In addition, it expands the scope of the out-group in family firms to embrace all non-family stakeholders and suggests an intergroup opposition between family and non-family stakeholders, which is important for advancing family firm theory.

The circular economy (CE) represents an industry-wide transition from linear to circular processes. There has been a proliferation of literature on CE in the last decade. However, the existing studies on the adaption of CE in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are scarce. This study aims to develop a research agenda and the way forward for future researchers focusing on the adoption of CE.

This article analyses the CE concepts through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). Coding and content analysis are performed to generate emergent themes with the help of “Atlas.ti” software.

The authors uncovered the contemporary significance of adopting CE and the state-of-the-art literature on CE. The study's findings fall into four broad themes: Technical know-how, resource and process optimization, reverse practices and technology and innovation. Ten thought-provoking questions were identified in the four themes that researchers can explore further in embracing CE to achieve sustainability in SMEs.

The study has highlighted the importance of CE adoption and CE's benefits to stakeholders across all three dimensions, i.e. social, economic and ecological. Practitioners can use the agenda in four themes to strengthen the practitioners' existing practices in SMEs to promote CE.

The study's uniqueness is the supply of current knowledge from diverse literature and practical consequences for SMEs. This study opens new lines of inquiry to adopt CE in SMEs, streamlining the existing literature into four themes to focus future research.

Accurately evaluating fluid flow behaviors and determining permeability for deforming porous media is time-consuming and remains challenging. This paper aims to propose a novel machine-learning method for the rapid estimation of permeability of porous media at different deformation stages constrained by hydro-mechanical coupling analysis.

A convolutional neural network (CNN) is proposed in this paper, which is guided by the results of finite element coupling analysis of equilibrium equation for mechanical deformation and Boltzmann equation for fluid dynamics during the hydro-mechanical coupling process [denoted as Finite element lattice Boltzmann model (FELBM) in this paper]. The FELBM ensures the Lattice Boltzmann analysis of coupled fluid flow with an unstructured mesh, which varies with the corresponding nodal displacement resulting from mechanical deformation. It provides reliable label data for permeability estimation at different stages using CNN.

The proposed CNN can rapidly and accurately estimate the permeability of deformable porous media, significantly reducing processing time. The application studies demonstrate high accuracy in predicting the permeability of deformable porous media for both the test and validation sets. The corresponding correlation coefficients (R²) is 0.93 for the validation set, and the R² for the test set A and test set B are 0.93 and 0.94, respectively.

This study proposes an innovative approach with the CNN to rapidly estimate permeability in porous media under dynamic deformations, guided by FELBM coupling analysis. The fast and accurate performance of CNN underscores its promising potential for future applications.

The innovation process demands an interaction between environment agents, knowledge generators and policies of incentive for innovation and not only development by companies. Universities have gradually become the core of the knowledge production system and, therefore, their role regarding innovation has become more important and diversified. This study is aimed at identifying the mechanisms of university–industry (U–I) collaboration, as well as the operationalization steps of the U–I collaboration process.

This study is aimed at identifying, based on a systematic literature review, the mechanisms of university–industry (U–I) collaboration, as well as the operationalization steps of the U–I collaboration process.

The analysis of the 72 selected articles enabled identifying 15 mechanisms of U–I collaboration, proposing a new classification for such mechanisms and developing a framework presenting the operationalization steps of the interaction process.

In this paper, the authors screened nearly 1,500 papers and analyzed in detail 86 papers addressing U–I collaboration, mechanisms of U–I collaboration and operationalization steps of the U–I collaboration process. This paper provides a new classification for such mechanisms and developing a framework presenting the operationalization steps of the interaction process. This research contributes to both theory and practice by highlighting managerial aspects and stimulating academic research on such timely topic.

Vertical electrical sounding (VES) and Rayleigh wave exploration are widely used in the exploration of near-surface structure, but both have limitations. This study aims to make full use of the advantages of the two methods, reduce the multiple solutions of single inversion and improve the accuracy of the inversion. Thus, a nonlinear joint inversion method of VES and Rayleigh wave exploration based on improved differential evolution (DE) algorithm was proposed.

Based on the DE algorithm, a new initialization strategy was proposed. Then, taking AK-type with high-velocity interlayer model and HA-type with low-velocity interlayer model near the surface as examples, the inversion results of different methods were compared and analyzed. Then, the proposed method was applied to the field data in Chengde, Hebei Province, China. The stratum structure was accurately depicted and verified by drilling.

The synthetic data and field data results showed that the joint inversion of VES and Rayleigh wave data based on the improved DE algorithm can effectively improve the interpretation accuracy of the single-method inversion and had strong stability and large generalizable ability in near-surface engineering problems.

A joint inversion method of VES and Rayleigh wave data based on improved DE algorithm is proposed, which can improve the accuracy of single-method inversion.

In this study, the authors explore the association between employee education level and the efficiency of corporate investment using data from a sample of Chinese listed firms during the period from 2011 to 2018. By examining the impact of education on investment efficiency, the authors' study provides valuable insights that contribute to a deeper understanding of the underlying economic mechanisms related to education.

The authors conduct multivariate regression analyses to examine the relationship between investment efficiency (following Richardson, 2006) and the level of employee education, along with a series of control variables. To ensure the reliability of the authors' findings, the authors subject the their results to a comprehensive set of robustness tests, such as a staggered difference-in-difference (DiD) regression approach, an instrumental variable (IV) method and the use of alternative employee education level and investment efficiency measurements.

The findings offer compelling evidence that higher levels of education have a positive impact on firms' investment efficiency, and this effect remains robust across various model specifications and endogeneity considerations. Moreover, the influence of education is more pronounced in firms that prioritize employee training, maintain effective internal communication and offer attractive financial rewards. Furthermore, the results suggest that the relationship between education and investment efficiency is influenced by the firms' business nature and competitive environment. Factors such as business complexity, labor intensity and business location also play a role in shaping the impact of education on investment outcomes.

The study emphasizes the crucial role of education in influencing investment decisions and performance within firms. By delving into this previously unexplored area, the authors' research contributes to the existing literature, establishing that the level of employee education is a significant determinant of corporate investment efficiency. This valuable insight has substantial implications for firms aiming to enhance their investment decision-making processes and overall performance. Understanding the positive impact of education on investment efficiency can empower organizations to leverage their human capital effectively and achieve better investment outcomes, ultimately contributing to long-term success and competitiveness in the market.

Solder bumps for chip interconnections are downsizing from current approximately 100 µm to the expected 1 µm in future. As a result, the Cu-Ni cross-interaction in Cu/Solder/Ni solder joints will be more complicated and then strongly influence the growth of the intermetallic compounds (IMCs). Thus, it is critical to understand the fundamental aspects of interfacial reaction in micro solder joints. This paper aims to reveal the effect mechanism of reflow temperature and solder size on the interfacial reaction in Cu/Solder/Ni solder joints.

The Cu-Ni cross-interaction in the Cu/Sn/Ni micro solder joints with 50 and 100 µm solder sizes at 250°C and 300°C were observed, respectively. The line-type interconnects were soaked in silicone oil, and the temperature of the line-type interconnects was 250 ± 3°C and 300 ± 3°C, which were monitored by a fine K-type thermocouple, and followed by an isothermal aging process at various times. After aging, the specimens were removed from the silicone oil and cooled in the air to room temperature.

The major interfacial reaction product on both interfaces was (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅, and the asymmetric growth of (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅, evidenced by the thickness of (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅ IMCs at the Sn/Ni interface was always larger than that at the Sn/Cu interface, resulted from the directional migration of Cu atoms toward the Sn/Ni interface under Cu concentration gradient. The morphology of (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅ IMC at Sn/Cu interface was columnlike at 250°C, and which changed from columnlike to scallop with large aspect ratio at 300°C, while that at Sn/Ni interface gradually evolved from needlelike to the mixture of needlelike and layered at 250°C, and which evolved from needlelike to scallop with large aspect ratio at 300°C. The evolution of morphology of (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅ is attributed to the content of Ni. Furthermore, the results indicate that the Cu-Ni cross-interaction was stronger with small solder size and relatively low temperature in the Cu/Sn/Ni micro solder joints.

The asymmetric growth of (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅ in the Cu/Sn/Ni micro solder joints, evidenced by the thickness of (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅ IMCs at the Sn/Ni interface, was always larger than that at the Sn/Cu interface. The morphology evolution of (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅ IMC at both interfaces was attributed to the content of Ni. The Cu-Ni cross-interaction was stronger with small solder size and relatively low temperature in the Cu/Sn/Ni micro solder joints.