Search results

This paper aims to explore the impact of green finance on the heterogeneity of enterprise green technology innovation and the underlying mechanism between them.

Using the data of China's A-share listed enterprises from 2008 to 2020 and the fixed effect model, the authors empirically explore the relationship and mechanism between green finance and green technology innovation by constructing the green finance index while considering both the quality and quantity of innovation.

The study suggests that green finance is positively related to the quality and quantity of enterprise green technology innovation, while green finance is more effective in stimulating the quality of green technology innovation than quantity. In addition, alleviating financial mismatch and improving the quality of environmental information disclosure are core mechanisms during the process of green finance facilitating green technology innovation. Furthermore, green finance exerts a more positive effect on the quality and quantity of green technology innovation with large-size enterprises, heavily polluting industries and enterprises in the eastern region.

This paper enriches the literature on green finance and green technology innovation and provides practical significance for green finance implementation.

The paper aims to study the effect of sintering temperature on the microstructure, shear strength and ratcheting fatigue life of nanosilver sintered lap shear joint. In addition, the Gerber model is used to predict the ratcheting fatigue lives of nanosilver sintered lap shear joints at different sintering temperatures.

In this paper, the nanosilver sintered lap shear joints were prepared at three sintering temperatures of 250 °C, 280 °C and 310 °C. The bonding quality was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscope and shear tests, and the long-term reliability was studied by conducting ratcheting fatigue tests. In addition, three modified models based on Basquin equation were used to predict the ratcheting fatigue life of nanosilver sintered lap shear joint and their accuracies were evaluated.

When the sintering temperature is 250°C, the nanosilver sintered lap shear joint shows the porosity of 22.9 ± 1.6 %, and the shear strength of 22.3 ± 2.4 MPa. Raising the sintering temperature enhances silver crystallite size, strengthens sintering necks, thus improves shear strength and ratcheting fatigue life in joints. In addition, the ratcheting fatigue lives of the joints sintered at different temperatures are effectively predicted by three equivalent force models, and the Gerber model shows the highest life prediction accuracy.

The sintered silver bondline is suffering a complex stress state. The study only takes the shear stress into consideration. The tensile stress and the combination of shear stress and tensile stress can to be considered in the future study.

The paper provides the experimental and theoretical support for robust bonding and long-term reliability of sintered silver structure.

The introduced model can predict the ratcheting fatigue lives of the joints sintered at different temperatures, which shows a potential in engineering applications.

The study revealed the relationship between the sintering temperature and the microstructure, the shear strength and the ratcheting fatigue life of the joint. In addition, the Gerber model can predict the ratcheting fatigue life accurately at different sintering temperatures.

China has recently introduced a new audit law that aims to increase the scope of audit supervision and raise the standards for preventing risks in auditing national public projects. This paper presents a systematic research study on the causes of audit risks in national public projects and discusses the process by which these causes contribute to the emergence of such risks. Furthermore, the paper investigates the core risk sources in various types of national construction project audit. This paper aims to provide theoretical support for auditors of national construction projects in risk avoidance when conducting audits.

In this study, the authors carefully selected five national public audit projects from China and performed a comprehensive analysis of 85 relevant audit documentation. The textual analysis was conducted using Nvivo12 software, and the grounded theory approach was adopted for generalization purposes.

Based on the research results, the findings suggest that there are five key causes contributing to the audit risk of national construction projects: professional competence, risk awareness, management capacity, level of attention and deliberate fraud. The most critical factor identified is management capability, with 59.93% of the data supporting this view. This conclusion was based on an analysis of state-owned enterprises, administrative organs and public institutions. Building upon this, a framework titled “the mechanism of audit risk factors with management capability as the core” was constructed.

This paper employs qualitative analysis methods to examine national construction projects in China, contributing new literature to the theoretical study of audit risk management. The article also provides practical recommendations for auditors on how to mitigate audit risks and improve the quality of audit services in national project governance.

The purpose of our study is to investigate the effects of politically-connected boards (PCBs) on over-(under-)investment in labor. We also examine the impacts of the supervisory board (SB)’s optimal tenure on the association between PCBs and over-investment in labor.

We constructed the proxy for PCBs using a dummy variable set to 1 (one) if a firm has politically-connected boards and zero (0) otherwise. For the robustness check, we used the number of politically-connected members on the boards as the proxy for PCBs.

We find that the presence of PCBs reduces over-investment in labor. Consistent with our prediction, we found no significant association between PCBs and under-investment in labor. We also find that the SB with optimal tenure strengthens the negative association between PCBs and over-investment in labor. In our channel analysis, we find that the presence of PCB mitigates over-investment in labor through a higher dividend payout ratio.

Due to the unavailability of data in firms’ annual reports regarding the number of poorly-skilled and highly skilled employees, we were not able to examine the effect of low-skilled and high-skilled employees on over-investment in labor. Also, we were not able to examine over-(under-)investment in labor by drawing a distinction between general (generalist) and firm-specific human capital (specialist) as suggested by Sevcenko, Wu, and Kacperczyk (2022). Generally, it is more difficult for managers to hire highly-skilled employees, specialists in particular, thereby driving the choice of either over- or under-investing in the labor forces. In addition, in the firms’ annual reports, there is no information regarding temporary employees. Therefore, if and when such data become available, this would provide another avenue for future research.

Our study offers several practical implications and insights to stakeholders (e.g. insiders or management, shareholders, investors, analysts and creditors) in the following ways. First, our study highlights significant differences between capital investment and labor investment. For instance, labor investment is considered an expense rather than an asset (Wyatt, 2008) because, although such investment is human capital and is not recognized on the firm’s balance sheet (Boon et al., 2017). In addition, labor investment is characterized by: its flexibility which enables firms to make frequent adjustments (Hamermesh, 1995; Dixit & Pindyck, 2012; Aksin et al., 2015), its non-homogeneity since every employee is unique (Luo et al., 2020), its direct impact on morale and productivity of a firm (Azadegan et al., 2013; Mishina et al., 2004; Tatikonda et al., 2013), and its financial outlay which affects the ongoing cash flows of a firm (Sualihu et al., 2021; Khedmati et al., 2020; Merz & Yashiv, 2007). Second, our findings reveal that the presence of PCBs could help to reduce over-investment in labor. However, if managers of a firm choose to under-invest in labor in order to obtain better profit in the short-term through cost saving, they should be aware of the potential consequences of facing a financial loss when a new business opportunity suddenly arises which requires a larger labor force. Third, our findings help stakeholders to re-focus on the labor investment. This is crucial due to the fact that labor investment is often neglected by those stakeholders because the expenditure of labor investment is not recognized on the firm’s balance sheet as an asset. Instead, it is written off as an expense in the firm’s income statement. Fourth, our findings also provide insightful information to stakeholders, suggesting that an SB with optimal tenure is more committed to a firm, and this factor plays an important role in strengthening the negative association between PCBs and over-investment in labor.

First, our findings provide a valuable understanding of the effects of PCBs on over-(under-)investment in labor. Stakeholders could use information disclosed in the financial statements of a publicly-listed firm to determine the extent of the firm’s investment in labor and PCBs, and compare this information with similar firms in the same industry sector. Second, our findings give a better understanding of the association between investment in labor and political connections , which are human and social capital that could determine the long-term survival and success of a firm. Third, for shareholders, the appointment of board members with political connections is an important strategic decision to build political capital, which is likely to have a long-term impact on the financial performance of a firm; therefore, it requires thoughtful consultation with firm insiders.

Our findings highlight the role of PCBs in reducing over-investment in labor. These findings are significant because both investment in labor and political connections as human and social capital can play an important role in determining the long-term survival and success of a firm.

The purpose of this study is to forecast the mechanical properties of ternary blended concrete (TBC) modified with oyster shell powder (OSP) and shea nutshell ash (SNA) using deep neural network (DNN) models.

DNN models with three hidden layers, each layer containing 5–30 nodes, were used to predict the target variables (compressive strength [CS], flexural strength [FS] and split tensile strength [STS]) for the eight input variables of concrete classes 25 and 30 MPa. The concrete samples were cured for 3–120 days. Levenberg−Marquardt's backpropagation learning technique trained the networks, and the model's precision was confirmed using the experimental data set.

The DNN model with a 25-node structure yielded a strong relation for training, validating and testing the input and output variables with the lowest mean squared error (MSE) and the highest correlation coefficient (R) values of 0.0099 and 99.91% for CS and 0.010 and 98.42% for FS compared to other architectures. However, the DNN model with a 20-node architecture yielded a strong correlation for STS, with the lowest MSE and the highest R values of 0.013 and 97.26%. Strong relationships were found between the developed models and raw experimental data sets, with R² values of 99.58%, 97.85% and 97.58% for CS, FS and STS, respectively.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this novel research establishes the prospects of replacing SNA and OSP with Portland limestone cement (PLC) to produce TBC. In addition, predicting the CS, FS and STS of TBC modified with OSP and SNA using DNN models is original, optimizing the time, cost and quality of concrete.

Spatial olfactory design in the library appears to be a practical approach to enhance the coordination between architectural spaces and user behaviors, shape immersive activity experiences and shape immersive activity experiences. Therefore, this study aims to explore the association between the olfactory elements of library space and users’ olfactory perception, providing a foundation for the practical design of olfactory space in libraries.

Using the olfactory perception semantic differential experiment method, this study collected feedback on the emotional experience of olfactory stimuli from 56 participants in an academic library. From the perspective of environmental psychology, the dimensions of pleasure, control and arousal of users’ olfactory perception in the academic library environment were semantically and emotionally described. In addition, the impact of fatigue state on users’ olfactory perception was analyzed through statistical methods to explore the impact path of individual physical differences on olfactory perception.

It was found that users’ olfactory perception in the academic library environment is likely semantically described from the dimensions of pleasure, arousal and control. These dimensions mutually influence users’ satisfaction with olfactory elements. Moreover, there is a close correlation between pleasure and satisfaction. In addition, fatigue states may impact users’ olfactory perception. Furthermore, users in a high-fatigue state may be more sensitive to the arousal of olfactory perception.

This article is an empirical exploration of users’ perception of the environmental odors in libraries. The experimental results of this paper may have practical implications for the construction of olfactory space in academic libraries.

The world today is heavily controlled by the content available on the internet, where a one-star rating gain may work wonders for a company and a one-star rating decline can cause huge damage. Online booking platforms provide more freedom, privacy and contact with experienced travelers than physical hotel booking. The study identifies the factors shaping travelers' online hotel booking intention (OHBI).

We utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) to expand the horizons of the technology acceptance model (TAM) and stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework in the hospitality sector. The results are based on the data collected from 705 travelers who made online hotel reservations.

The findings demonstrate that online reviews, hotel website quality and hotel website convenience quotient favorably shape prospective tourists' perceived trust, magnifying their inclination to book a hotel online. Website convenience quotient and trust partially mediate the association between the constructs. In addition, the linkage between perceived trust and OHBI is strengthened by promotional offers but weakened by perceived risk.

Our findings provide several important implications for hotel managers, prospective travelers, hotel owners, website developers, policymakers, hotel employees, the local community and competitors to expedite the growth of the Indian hotel industry.

The literature reveals that website convenience quotient, perceived trust and promotional offers have not received enough attention in the hospitality industry and warrant attention. Our study strives to broaden the scope of the TAM and SOR models to better understand these constructs in the backdrop of the Indian hospitality sector. The study also examines how promotional offers and perceived risk influence the linkages between the underlying constructs.

The research aims to provide empirical evidence on the relationship between financial statement comparability (FSC) and cost of equity (COE) in an emerging market.

Specifically, this study examines the relationship between FSC and COE of Vietnamese listed firms. The research uses the System Generalized Method of Moments regression techniques for a panel data set of 454 companies for the period 2015–2022.

The authors find that firms with high comparability of financial statements have lower COE. To confirm the research findings, the authors conduct the robustness test by using different proxies for the cost of equity. Consistent results are found.

The study contributes to the overall understanding of the relationship between FSC and COE, and suggests policy implications for relevant stakeholders such as managers, regulatory bodies and investors. Especially, regarding policymakers, this study could provide more insight into how the accounting convergence process impacts the effectiveness of a firm’s capital allocation.

In the process of making agricultural production decisions in rural households, severe weather conditions, either extreme cold or heat, may squeeze the labor input in the agricultural sector, leading to a reallocation of labor between the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. By applying a dataset with a wide latitude range, this study empirically confirms the influence of extreme temperatures on the agricultural labor reallocation, reveal the mechanism of farmers’ adaptive behavioral decision and therefore enriches the research on the impact of climate change on rural labor markets and livelihood strategies.

This study utilizes data from Chinese meteorological stations and two waves of China Household Income Project to examine the impact and behavioral mechanism of extreme temperatures on rural labor reallocation.

(1) Extremely high and low temperatures had led to a reallocation of labor force from agricultural activities to non-farm employment, with a more pronounced effect from extreme high temperature events. (2) Extreme temperatures influence famers’ decision in abandoning farmland and reducing investment in agricultural machinery, thus creating an interconnected impact on labor mobility. (3) The reallocation effect of rural labor induced by extreme temperatures is particularly evident for males, persons that perceives economic hardship or labor in economically active areas.

By applying a dataset with a wide latitude range, this study empirically confirms the influence of extreme temperatures on the agricultural labor reallocation, and reveals the mechanism of farmers’ adaptive behavioral decision and therefore enriches the research on the impact of climate change on rural labor markets and livelihood strategies.

Live-streaming e-commerce (LSE) allows anchors to bring offline promotion skills to interact with consumers and persuade them to buy. However, how consumers respond to these communications remains unknown. This study examines the persuasive effect of different scarcity marketing messages on impulsive buying in the LSE context.

This study adopts scenario-based experimental methods and conducts two 2 quantity-based scarcity (supply-framed vs demand-framed)*2 time-based scarcity appeals (high vs low) between-subjects experiments to test the hypotheses.

The results indicate that supply-framed appeals are more effective in provoking consumers’ arousal and impulsive buying, but are moderated by time scarcity. Furthermore, emotional arousal only mediates the effects of quantity-based scarcity appeals on impulsive buying under high-level time scarcity conditions.

This study contributes to the e-commerce literature by comparing the persuasive effect of different scarcity messages in the LSE context. We broaden the scarcity marketing literature by testing the combined effect of quantity-based and time-based scarcity appeals. Finally, this study extends the application of the competitive arousal model.