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The authors test the effect of expenditure decentralization and fiscal equalization on short- and long-run economic growth and estimate two-step generalized method of moment (GMM) simultaneous equations models, using panel data for China and India for the period 1985 to 2005. The authors estimate two simultaneous equations: a growth equation and equalization equation and find that expenditure decentralization has a negative and statistically significant effect at conventional levels on short-run economic growth for both China and India. However, the authors also find that this result is sensitive to the set of included explanatory variables. This leads the authors to conclude that expenditure decentralization has no effect on short-run economic growth for either country. The authors also find that expenditure decentralization has a positive and statistically significant effect on fiscal equalization for both countries but find no evidence that fiscal equalization affects short-run economic growth for either China or India. In contrast, the authors find that expenditure decentralization has a positive effect on long-run economic growth in the case of India, but not in the case of China. Finally, the authors report evidence that fiscal equalization has no effect on long-run economic growth in the case of China; however, the authors find that equalization has a positive and statistically significant at conventional levels effect on long-run economic growth in India.

The authors estimate two-step GMM simultaneous equations models, using panel data for China and India for the period 1985 to 2005. To examine the effect of fiscal decentralization (FD) policies on economic growth in China and India, the authors estimate two equations: a growth equation and an equalization equation. For the growth equation, the authors adopt a production-function-based model that is widely used in the empirical literature on growth; however, the authors do make some compromises with this specification due to the unavailability of certain data. For the equalization equation, the authors include variables that economic theory and empirical evidence suggest influence fiscal disparities among subnational governments which in turn influence the demand for horizontal fiscal equalization (HFE). To the extent possible, the authors employ the same econometric specification, variable constructions and sample periods for both China and India. The authors believe this strategy provides a more rigorous test of the FD hypothesis.

The authors find that expenditure decentralization has a negative and statistically significant effect at conventional levels on short-run economic growth for both China and India. However, the authors also find that this result is sensitive to the set of included explanatory variables. This leads to conclude that expenditure decentralization has no effect on short-run economic growth for either country. The authors also find that expenditure decentralization has a positive and statistically significant effect on fiscal equalization for both countries but find no evidence that fiscal equalization affects short-run economic growth for either China or India. In contrast, the authors find that expenditure decentralization has a positive effect on long-run economic growth in the case of India, but not in the case of China. Finally, the authors report evidence that fiscal equalization has no effect on long-run economic growth in the case of China; however, the authors find that equalization has a positive and statistically significant at conventional levels effect on long-run economic growth in India.

Due to the importance of FD policies, especially to many developing countries that are currently pursuing decentralization reforms, future research should examine the effect of FD on economic growth for other countries. Furthermore, although it would be difficult to do so, future research should examine whether FD promotes political stability on ethnically diverse countries.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no one has examined the effect of FD policies on India's growth experience. What is more is that this is also the first of its kind to have a comprehensive empirical investigation into these two major developing countries with very interesting similarities and differences in FD policies. It is thus of great importance to examine the effect of expenditure decentralization and HFE on economic growth in China and India.

The type 120 emergency valve is an essential braking component of railway freight trains, but corresponding diaphragms consisting of natural rubber (NR) and chloroprene rubber (CR) exhibit insufficient aging resistance and low-temperature resistance, respectively. In order to develop type 120 emergency valve rubber diaphragms with long-life and high-performance, low-temperatureresistant CR and NR were processed.

The physical properties of the low-temperature-resistant CR and NR were tested by low-temperature stretching, dynamic mechanical analysis, differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis. Single-valve and single-vehicle tests of type 120 emergency valves were carried out for emergency diaphragms consisting of NR and CR.

The low-temperature-resistant CR and NR exhibited excellent physical properties. The elasticity and low-temperature resistance of NR were superior to those of CR, whereas the mechanical properties of the two rubbers were similar in the temperature range of 0 °C–150 °C. The NR and CR emergency diaphragms met the requirements of the single-valve test. In the low-temperature single-vehicle test, only the low-temperature sensitivity test of the NR emergency diaphragm met the requirements.

The innovation of this study is that it provides valuable data and experience for future development of type 120 valve rubber diaphragms.

The purpose of this paper is to study the interrelationships among grocery store image, travel distance (TD), customer satisfaction, and behavioral intentions (BI) in a college town setting.

Surveys are given to undergraduate college student grocery shoppers in a Midwest college town. The 400 usable questionnaires are randomly divided into two parts: one subsample was used for exploratory factor analysis while the other (larger) subsample was used for confirmatory factor analysis and subsequently the structural path analysis.

Grocery store image is identified as a second‐order construct reflected by the three key components of merchandise attributes (MEA), store ambience and service (SAS), and marketing attractiveness (MGA). Although store image is an important driver of BI, its indirect effect through customer satisfaction is found to be substantially greater than its direct effect on BI. Interestingly, TD is positively related to satisfaction, which highlights the possibility for retailers to overcome the distance disadvantage.

As few studies have attempted to characterize the US grocery market in terms of the reasons for their choice, this exploratory study is unique because it investigates grocery shopping behavior in a traditional American college town. Specifically, the distinctive market factors (e.g. the relative scarcity of grocery retailers, their distance from campus, and the mix of grocer types in or around the Midwest college town) add value and contribute to the retailing literature.

The purpose of this paper is to study the optimum culture condition of flax-retting enzyme, and applying the enzyme liquors to retting. In addition to research the structure of flax stem in enzyme retting using scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

The influence of cultural parameters such as moisture level, temperature, incubation time and inoculum size were evaluated with respect to polygalacturonase and xylanase yield. The structure of flax stem was revealed by SEM.

The flax was retted by dilute enzyme liquors (polygalacturonase/25 U/ml, xylanase/1 U/ml), and 24-h retting period was obtained. The SEM studies revealed the removal of a large amount of non-cellulosic gummy material of flax stem in enzyme retting.

First, flax-retting enzyme containing higher-yield polygalacturonase, lower-yield xylanase and no cellulose was yielded by SSF. Second, the composition of enzyme could meet flax retting and no damage cellulosic fibre. Finally, only low-cost wheat bran, citrus peel powder and mineral salt were employed in substrate, which could reduce the overall cost of enzyme production and flax retting.

This chapter examines how the breakthrough of Zhang Ziyi's depiction of a female kung fu master in The Grandmaster (2013) transforms the figure of the heroine in Chinese action films. Zhang is well known for her acting in action films conducted by renowned directors, such as Ang Lee, Zhang Yimou and Wong Kar-wai. After winning 12 different Best Actress awards for her portrayal of Gong Ruomei in The Grandmaster, Zhang announced that she would no longer perform in any action films to show her highest respect for the superlative character Gong. Tracing Zhang's transformational portrait of a heroine in The Grandmaster alongside her other action roles, this analysis demonstrates how her performance projects the directors' distinctive gender viewpoints. I argue that Zhang's characterisation of Gong remodels heroine-hood in Chinese action films. Inheriting the typical plot of a daughter's use of martial arts for revenge for her father's death, Gong breaks from conventional Chinese action films that highlight romantic love during a woman's adventure and the decisive final battle scene. Beyond the propensity for sensory stimulation, Gong's characterisation enables Zhang to determine that women can really act in action films – demonstrating their inner power and ability to create multi-layered characters – not merely relying upon physical action. This chapter offers a relational perspective of how women transform the action film genre not merely as gender spectacles but as embodied figures that represent emerging female subjectivity.

Given the rapid development of ethnic‐themed restaurants, this study aims to investigate how authentic atmospherics affects consumer emotions and behavioral intentions in Chinese restaurants in the USA.

A total of 348 usable responses from full table service restaurants in the USA were obtained via self‐administered questionnaires. A proposed model was tested following Anderson and Gerbing's two‐step approach: a measurement model and a subsequent structural model.

Using a structural equation modeling technique, this study found that authentic atmospherics significantly influences consumers' positive and negative emotions, and both types of emotions acted as full mediators between authentic atmospherics and behavioral intentions. Subsequent regression analyses revealed that menu presentation, furnishings, and music were significant predictors of positive emotions whereas menu presentation and music significantly influenced negative emotions.

The data were collected from only full table service restaurants. Therefore, generalizing the results for other segments of the restaurant industry may not be possible.

The findings have important implications for selecting and refining crucial elements of authentic atmospherics in order to enhance customers' favorable emotions, avoid unfavorable emotions, and ultimately heighten positive behavioral consequences.

Different from previous studies on the general aspect of atmospherics, this study exclusively investigates the effect of authentic atmospherics on customer post‐dining behavioral intentions in Chinese restaurants, one of the most popular ethnic restaurant segments in the US foodservice market. This study could also provide directions for improving the perceived authenticity of restaurant atmospherics.

Knowledge sharing is an important way to improve the knowledge system of industrial construction, and the supervision mechanism is an important way to improve the efficiency of knowledge sharing. However, some research works and practices indicate that the effects of applying the supervision mechanism are not obvious. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to propose an incentive method of knowledge sharing based on the supervision mechanism for promoting knowledge sharing among member enterprises in the industrial construction supply chain.

A basic incentive model and an optimization model of knowledge sharing in the industrial construction supply chain based on the supervision mechanism were developed via the principal–agent theory. Weighted coefficients of explicit and implicit knowledge sharing were introduced into the basic model, while the supervision reward was added into the basic model of the optimization model. The effect of these two models was compared and analyzed via numerical simulation.

The optimal incentive coefficient and effort level of knowledge sharing can be obtained by solving the two aforementioned models. The results of the comparison between the two models indicate that the introduction of a supervisory reward improved the effort level and expected earnings produced by knowledge sharing, but reduced the confirmed equal earnings of member enterprises in the industrial construction supply chain.

Mutual transformation between tacit and explicit knowledge was not considered, and supervisory costs were also not considered, in the estimation of the output of knowledge sharing.

The new models proposed by this study provide theoretical guidance for the design of knowledge sharing incentive measures in the industrial construction supply chain based on the supervision mechanism. The findings suggest that member enterprises should pay attention to the costs of knowledge sharing, in order to obtain more benefits.

This study introduced the weight coefficients of explicit and implicit knowledge sharing into a previous incentive model, proposed an incentive optimization model of knowledge sharing in the industrial construction supply chain based on a supervisory mechanism, and revealed the change rules of related variables that affect the model with the change in weight coefficients. The findings verify the effectiveness of introducing supervisory reward measures and extend the range of theoretical application.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of product market competition on the risk of stock price crash based on the degree of industry competition and the competitive position of enterprises.

This paper chooses the data of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2017 as samples and uses a threshold regression model to explore the impact of product market competition on the risk of a stock price crash.

The results show that: the overall level of industry competition is negatively correlated with the risk of stock price crash; the competitive position of enterprises and the risk of a stock price crash. The correlation is not significant: for high competitive enterprises, the degree of industry competition is negatively correlated with the risk of stock price crash; for low competitive enterprises, the degree of industry competition is positively correlated with the risk of a stock price crash and the conclusions obtained have passed the robustness test.

This paper not only enriches the literature on the relationship between product market competition and the risk of stock price crash but also has reference significance for supervisors to allocate resources to supervise information disclosure of listed companies.