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In any time and space and under any circumstance, we find peasants are never passive actors in their livelihoods and rural development. Instead, they always create space for manoeuvre in order to make changes. This chapter analyses the innovative actions taken by the majority of rural inhabitants in rural areas during the overwhelming modernization process, so as to affirm that peasants are the main actors of rural development. It is they who have shaped the transformation of rural societies and the history. Through the analysis, this chapter concludes that rural development is not an objective, a blueprint nor a design. It is not the to-be-developed rear field in modernization. It is not the babysitter for cities, nor a rehearsal place for bureaucrats to testify their random thoughts. Rural development is what peasants do. The path they have chosen reveals scenery so different from modernization. If we regard development as a social change, or a cross with influential meanings, we could understand rural development as peasants’ victories over their predicament. Villages accommodate not only peasants, but without peasants villages would surely vanish. In this sense, the most important part in rural development or rural change is peasants – their conditions and their feelings.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the development of knowledge management (KM) in China and its Western origins.

The paper is developed by exploring the existing KM survey results in China. Discussions from KM surveys into Chinese KM practices and the Chinese economy are presented. A discussion of KM in the Chinese service sector provides a set of KM research reviews to examine the current issues and status of KM studies in this area. To understand KM and its importance to people, technology and process for innovation and knowledge sharing on different levels in the service sector in China, this paper is divided into seven distinct parts, which addresses three main KM issues in China, i.e. development and challenges for Chinese economy and service industry, KM research and practice in China and knowledge sharing and innovation with cultural factors. This paper offers guidance to researchers and managers involved in KM efforts to understand how KM is developed in China and what kind of research model is required for Chinese KM studies.

KM surveys in China were based on different purposes and scopes. While Western KM theories did provide a foundation for the KM studies in China, the unique Chinese culture environment requires the Chinese research models. The development of KM in China is still at its early stage. Limitations of the current Chinese KM studies are revealed and the KM status of the Chinese service sector also discussed.

A research model that is suitable for the Chinese KM practices is yet to be formally established.

This paper contrasts the development of KM in China by examining different KM survey results from China. For practitioners, findings provide understanding on how KM is developing. For KM researchers, the understanding of culture and analytic directions of KM studies from the Chinese service sector are discussed.

In this paper, KM development in China revealed, that can provide guidance to researches involved in KM efforts and directing the future path of KM analytic model with a cultural perspective.

Membrane biological reactor (MBR) is recognized as an efficient and steady wastewater treatment process. The purpose of this study is to reveal the research trends of scientific outputs on MBR for the past 32 years.

A method of bibliometric analysis was performed, based on the online version of the Science Citation Index Expanded, Web of Science, from 1982 to 2013. In total, 5,305 articles related to MBR were evaluated. A new method named “word cluster analysis” was also used for further analysis.

Results showed a rising trend of publications in this research field. English was the main language used in these articles. Journal of membrane science published the most articles, proving to be one of the most authoritative journals. China and Dalian University of Technology were the most productive country and institute, respectively. Except for “membrane bioreactor” and “MBR”, “membrane fouling” was the most cited keyword, indicating the research hotspot nowadays and future.

This study serves as an alternative and innovative way of revealing the research trends in MBR research.

The purpose of this paper is to construct an unbiased interval grey number prediction model with new information priority for dealing with the jumping errors from difference equation to the differential equation in the prediction model of interval grey number.

First, this study obtains a set of linear equations about the model parameters by taking the minimum error sum of squares between the accumulative sequence and its simulation values as criterion, and solves them on the basis of the Crammer rule. Then, according to the new information priority principle, it selects the last number of the accumulated generation sequence as the initial value and gives the expression of the time response function by the recursive iteration method to establish the interval grey number prediction model.

This paper provides an unbiased interval grey number prediction model with new information priority, and the example analysis shows that the method proposed in this paper has higher prediction precision and practicality.

If there is a better method to whiten the interval grey number, so as to fully tap the grey information contained in it, the accuracy of the model will be higher.

The model proposed in this paper can avoid the error caused by jumping from difference equation to differential equation and make full use of new information. It can be better used in a problem where new information has a great influence on prediction results.

This paper selects the last number of the accumulated generation sequence as the initial value and gives the expression of the time response function by the recursive iteration method. Then, it constructs an unbiased interval grey number prediction model with new information priority.

The performance of the first batch of listed companies since the restart of new initial public offerings (IPOs) in January 2014 and their accounting information face repeated and volatile questioning from different sides. This paper aims to take Guirenniao (China) Co. Ltd. (GRN for short), one of the first batch of listed companies in 2014 that suffered performance decline, as an example to analyze how it managed earnings before IPO.

This paper examines earnings management signs that exist in GRN through analysis of its financial statements compared to those of its industry peers. This paper then uses the modified Jones model to detect its accrual earnings management and build three models, which are abnormal levels of cash flows from operations, abnormal production costs and abnormal discretionary expenses, to detect real earnings management.

This paper finds that GRN managed earnings through accrual and real activities in 2012 and 2013. Finally, this paper provides evidence on the specific methods of earnings management, which are easing credit policy to recognize revenue in advance, abnormal expansion, decreasing costs and connected transactions.

This paper examines earnings management signs exist in GRN through analysis of its financial statements comparing to those of its industry peers. This paper then uses the modified Jones Model to detect its accrual earnings management and build three models which are abnormal levels of cash flows from operations, abnormal production costs and abnormal discretionary expenses to detect real earnings management.

This paper, from the perspective of based view of dynamic system, aims to take the family enterprise as a sample to articulate how the speed of institutional change affects the entrepreneur’s spirit collocation of family enterprises and investigate the moderating effects of the scale of enterprises as well.

This paper uses survey database from Chinese research of private enterprise group in 2010 with the ninth national large-scale private entrepreneurs, and the legal source of data comes from research center for Chinese family firm of Sun Yat-Sen University. A total of 4,900 questionnaires are issued, 4,614 are recovered and the total recovery rate is 94.16 per cent. In this paper, STATA12.0 is used for data processing and basic regression testing. To overcome the possible existence of the different variance problem, the authors use the feasible generalized least squares to estimate the model.

The speed of institutional change will lead to the reduction of unproductive activities and the increase of productive activities in the area where the speed of institutional change is slow. Meanwhile, the scale of enterprise can reverse the negative relationship between the speed of institutional change and unproductive activities. The speed of institutional change will lead to the reduction of unproductive activities and the increase of productive activities in the area where the speed of institutional change is fast. Meanwhile, the scale of enterprises can reverse the positive relationship between the speed of institutional change and the unproductive activities.

It can be concluded that because of the difference of the regional market, a positive U-type reflects the relationship between the speed of institutional change and the entrepreneur’s allocation of entrepreneurship in family firms, whereas the scale of enterprises plays a key role of nonlinear regulation. This research has a certain theoretical value and practical significance on the understanding of how family firms make strategic decisions in response to institutional change and it can further enrich the research results of entrepreneurship allocation theory and institutional change theory.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a method for the existence, uniqueness and globally robust stability of the equilibrium point for Cohen–Grossberg neural networks with time-varying delays, continuous distributed delays and a kind of discontinuous activation functions.

Based on the Leray–Schauder alternative theorem and chain rule, by using a novel integral inequality dealing with monotone non-decreasing function, the authors obtain a delay-dependent sufficient condition with less conservativeness for robust stability of considered neural networks.

It turns out that the authors’ delay-dependent sufficient condition can be formed in terms of linear matrix inequalities conditions. Two examples show the effectiveness of the obtained results.

The novelty of the proposed approach lies in dealing with a new kind of discontinuous activation functions by using the Leray–Schauder alternative theorem, chain rule and a novel integral inequality on monotone non-decreasing function.

Integrating the pathway model of meaningful work and the intrinsic motivation principle of creativity, the authors investigate why, when and how paternalistic leadership relates to employee creativity in the Chinese organizational context. The authors suggest that the meaning of work (MOW) mediates the relationship between paternalistic leadership and employee creativity. The authors further identify perspective taking as a moderator in the mediated relationship for the path from MOW to creativity.

The authors relied on a sample of 340 employee-supervisor dyads collected from multiple organizations located in Eastern China to test the study hypotheses.

Results indicated that MOW mediated the positive relationships between the benevolence and morality dimensions of paternalistic leadership and employee creativity, and the negative relationship between the authoritarianism dimension of paternalistic leadership and employee creativity. Further, the indirect relationships between the three dimensions of paternalistic leadership (i.e. authoritarianism, benevolence and morality) and employee creativity through MOW were more pronounced when perspective taking was higher rather than lower.

Through a meaning-based perspective, the authors demonstrate that a culture-specific managerial philosophy (i.e. paternalistic leadership) shapes Chinese employees' perceptions of meaningful work and their subsequent creative performance. This paper complements the dominant focus on Western leadership in the creativity literature and denotes that paternalistic leadership matters for employee creativity in Chinese organizations.

In recent years, we have witnessed a surge in academic interest towards migrants and their entrepreneurial endeavours. This has resulted in valuable insights about immigrant, transnational, ethnic and diaspora entrepreneurship. By reviewing 158 articles published in the fields of migrant entrepreneurship, transnational entrepreneurship, ethnic and diaspora entrepreneurship over the last decade, the author maps the migrant entrepreneurship field according to the level of analysis and suggests potential avenues for the development of the field. Blurred boundaries between different streams of literature can potentially lead to duplication of efforts and harm cumulativity of knowledge. Therefore, the author summarises the key findings at each level of analysis, identifies the gaps and most pressing research questions. The author concluded that the field would benefit from (1) more specific definitions and assessment of whether observed findings stem from immigrant-, transnational-, ethnic- or diaspora-related factors; (2) appreciating the multilevel nature of the phenomenon; and (3) clarifying the boundary conditions. This review contributes to the accumulation of knowledge in two ways. First, it synthesises the findings in the fields of transnational, immigrant, ethnic and diaspora entrepreneurship under the framework of migrant entrepreneurship. Second, it suggests potential research directions across three levels of analysis and in-between those levels.

Corporate digital transformation (CDT) has challenged traditional tax administration systems. This study examines the impact of CDT on tax avoidance behavior and tests whether tax authorities can identify this behavior.

Using data on listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2008 to 2020, this study applies the Heckman two-stage and cross-section models.

The results show that the higher the degree of CDT, the more aggressive the tax avoidance behavior. The CDT's impact on corporate tax avoidance is more significant under strong government tax efforts.

This study expands research on the economic consequences of CDT and the factors influencing corporate tax avoidance behavior. Moreover, it has important implications for governments to monitor tax avoidance behavior under the CDT, improve digital tax systems, and pay more attention to the tax administration of digital assets.