Search results

The construction industry accounts for a large proportion of the economy of developing countries, but the connotation and influencing factors of high-quality development (HQD) are still unclear. This study aims to gain a more comprehensive insight into the current development status of the regional construction industry under China's HQD orientation and the obstructive factors affecting its development and to provide informative suggestions for its HQD prospects.

In this study, the construction industry of 16 cities in the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle (CCEC), a new region in southwest China, was used as the research object to collect data from the 2006–2019 yearbooks, construct an evaluation index system for HQD of the construction industry, derive the development level of the construction industry using the entropy value method and spatial autocorrelation method and then apply the barrier Diagnostic model was used to compare and analyze the impact level of each index.

In terms of the time dimension, the development of the construction industry in CCEC is characterized by “high in the twin core and low in the surrounding area”, with unbalanced and insufficient development; in terms of spatial correlation, some factors have positive aggregation in spatial distribution, but the peripheral linkage decreases; through barrier analysis, the impact of different barrier factors is different.

This paper will help governments and enterprises in developing countries to make urban planning and management policies to fundamentally improve the development of the construction industry in underdeveloped regions.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the social responsibility performance’s current situation, influencing factors and mechanisms of multinational companies (MNCs) in China. The paper is based on the MNC’s social responsibility performance factors to find some relevant reasons for unsatisfied performance and on the multiple perspectives such as institutional distance and stakeholders, to provide feasible solutions for MNCs to assume civic responsibility and the high-quality development of the host country.

The study uses general literature review and empirical analysis to analyze the way and degree of various factors which are affecting the social responsibility of MNC in China, and supplements the deficiencies of previous studies.

The paper reveals the influencing factors and mechanisms of MNCs’ social responsibility in China through the regression results. In addition, based on Research Report on Corporate Social Responsibility of China (Huang et al., 2013/2019), the paper also summarizes the performance and dynamic changes of MNCs social responsibility in the Chinese market in the past decade.

The paper enriches research on the social responsibility of MNCs in the background of non-western countries, dynamically describes the performance of MNCs’ responsibilities in a 10-year span and solves the problem of inconsistent research conclusions caused by too long time span. The paper also creates the “local enterprise responsibility level” to quantify the development of the host country’s responsibility, and identifies the “responsibility demonstration effect” of state-owned enterprises and private enterprises.

This study aims to explore the formation mechanism of aerodynamic noise of a high-speed maglev train and understand the characteristics of dipole and quadrupole sound sources of the maglev train at different speed levels.

Based on large eddy simulation (LES) method and Kirchhoff–Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings (K-FWH) equations, the characteristics of dipole and quadrupole sound sources of maglev trains at different speed levels were simulated and analyzed by constructing reasonable penetrable integral surface.

The spatial disturbance resulting from the separation of the boundary layer in the streamlined area of the tail car is the source of aerodynamic sound of the maglev train. The dipole sources of the train are mainly distributed around the radio terminals of the head and tail cars of the maglev train, the bottom of the arms of the streamlined parts of the head and tail cars and the nose tip area of the streamlined part of the tail car, and the quadrupole sources are mainly distributed in the wake area. When the train runs at three speed levels of 400, 500 and 600 km·h⁻¹, respectively, the radiated energy of quadrupole source is 62.4%, 63.3% and 71.7%, respectively, which exceeds that of dipole sources.

This study can help understand the aerodynamic noise characteristics generated by the high-speed maglev train and provide a reference for the optimization design of its aerodynamic shape.

In the academic field of business management, several potential theories were established during the last decades to explain companies' decisions, organizational behavior, consumer patterns, and internationalization, among others. As a result, businesses and scholars were able to analyze and decide based on theoretical approaches to explain the current conditions of the market. Secondary research was conducted to collect more than 36 management theories. This chapter aims to develop the most famous theories related to business applied in the international field. The novelty of this chapter relies on the compilation of recognized previous research studies from the academic literature and evidence in international business.

Based on the perspectives of social capital, image motivation and motivation affordances, this paper explores the direct and moderation effects of different kinds of motivations (i.e. relationship-based motivation, community-based motivation and individual-based motivation) on users' continuous knowledge contributions in social question and answer (Q&A) communities.

The authors collect the panel data of 10,193 users from a popular social Q&A community in China. Then, a negative binomial regression model is adopted to analyze the collected data.

The paper demonstrates that social learning, peer recognition and knowledge seeking positively affect users' continuous contribution behaviors. However, the results also show that social exposure has the opposite effect. In addition, self-presentation is found to moderate the influence of social factors on users' continuous use behaviors, while the moderation effect of motivation affordances has no significance.

First, this study develops a comprehensive motivation framework that helps gain deeper insights into the underlying mechanism of knowledge contribution in social Q&A communities. Second, this study conducts panel data analysis to capture the impacts of motivations over time, rather than intentions at a fixed time point. Third, the findings can help operators of social Q&A communities to optimize community norms and incentive mechanisms.

This study aims at investigating how energy strategies of China impact its energy shipping import through a strategic maritime link, the Straits of Malacca and Singapore (SOMS).

Vector error-correction modelling (VECM) is applied to examine the key energy strategies of China influencing crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipping import via the SOMS. Strategies investigated include oil storage expansions, government-setting targets to motivate domestic gas production, pipeline projects to diversify natural gas import routes and commercial strategies to ensure oil and gas accessibility and cost-effectiveness.

For the crude oil sector, building up oil storage and diversifying oil import means, routes and sources were found effective to mitigate impacts of consumption surges and price shocks. For the LNG sector, domestic production expansion effectively reduces LNG import. However, pipeline gas import growth is inefficient to relieve LNG shipping import dependency. Furthermore, energy companies have limited flexibility to adjust LNG shipping import volumes via the SOMS even under increased import prices and transport costs.

As the natural gas demand of China continues expanding, utilisation rates of existing pipeline networks need to be enhanced. Besides, domestic production expansion and diversification of LNG import sources and means are crucial.

This study is among the first in the literature using a quantitative approach to investigate how energy strategies implemented in a nation impact its energy shipping volumes via the SOMS, which is one of the most important maritime links that support 40% of the global trades.

People often need to make intertemporal choices in their daily life, such as savings and spending, but their decisions are not always entirely rational. The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of hunger on intertemporal choices and the moderating effect of sensitivity to reward.

Two studies verified these two hypotheses. The first study confirmed the existence of the main effect by manipulating food aroma. In the second study, by manipulating hunger with images, the authors increased external validity of the study and confirmed the regulation of the sensitivity of rewards.

The authors found that hungry people prefer to reap the benefits as early as possible in an intertemporal choice; this effect is significant only for those people who are sensitive to reward.

The research contributes to understand more about which factors will influence Chinese residents’ decisions on savings and spending. It also has practical implication for government policy, for example, proposing new ideas for reducing household savings rate and stimulating consumption.

The results confirmed that hunger significantly affects consumers’ intertemporal choices, which broadened the scope of researches on the factors that influence intertemporal choice, and advanced the study on the influence of individual’s physiological state on intertemporal choices. This study filled the gaps in previous researches, and opened up new research ideas for interdisciplinary study.

Due to the rapid development and innovation in the Internet-based technology, conventional banks are under pressure and have to compete with Internet-based finance. This has made banks adopt measures to improve operational efficiency and reduce input and increase output.

The authors had proposed a two-stage fairness concern efficiency model based on the classical theory of data envelopment analysis (DEA) and performed an empirical study to measure agricultural loan efficiency in the 20 major Chinese banks.

The findings of the empirical analysis are as follows: (1) peer-induced fairness concern has no impact on deposit efficiency in a centralized bank supply chain; (2) The China Merchants Bank (CMB) has the third lowest deposit efficiency; (3) monotonicity of loan efficiency with input allocation depends on a bank's ownership structure; (4) efficiency ranks are strongly affected by the fairness concern; (5) most Chinese banks show a low agricultural loan efficiency.

This paper contributes to the literature in several ways. First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to analyze agricultural loan efficiency for a bank supply chain system with the fairness concern. This work reveals the hidden factor that restricts loan efficiency of Chinese banks. Second, the proposed fairness concern two-stage DEA model has shown good ability for full ranking. It can provide a new perspective to the classical DEA literature for ranking decision-making units (DMUs). Third, the authors have demonstrated empirical bank efficiency for the 20 major Chinese banks.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the monitoring effectiveness of insider-dominated boards and outsider-dominated boards on different types of CEOs.

To test whether boards monitor inside CEOs and outside CEOs differently and to compare the sizes of the effects across board types, the paper relates CEO resignations to performance measure. The paper tests the hypotheses using logit models to estimate the probability of a CEO change.

It is widely believed that only an outsider-dominated board can provide effective management oversight. The paper finds evidence supporting this view after categorized CEOs based on their affiliation with their firms upon hire. However, the paper also documents that after the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), an insider-dominated board is just as effective as an outsider board in monitoring if the CEO was initially hired from outside of the firm. This suggests that there is no difference between insider and outsider board monitoring of outside CEOs. Therefore, after SOX, as far as board monitoring is concerned, what matters is the independence between the CEO and the firm rather than the board structure itself.

If effective board monitoring is the reason of the revised listing standards approved by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2003 to require companies listed on NYSE or Nasdaq to have a board that is composed of a majority of independent (or outsider) directors, the paper has provided more flexibility and choices to the listed firms. For example, firms that will be better off with insider boards can choose to hire outside CEOs because monitoring effects on outside CEOs are the same regardless of board types after SOX.

The results of this paper have interesting implication. First, the paper has shown that an outsider-dominated board is still a better monitor even after categorized CEOs based on their affiliation with their firms upon hire. Second, if effective board monitoring is the reason of the revised listing standards approved by SEC in 2003 to require companies listed on NYSE or Nasdaq to have a board that is composed of a majority of independent (or outsider) directors, the paper has provided more flexibility and choices to the listed firms. For example, firms that will be better off with insider boards can choose to hire outside CEOs because monitoring effects on outside CEOs are the same regardless of board types after SOX.

This paper aims to analyze the potentials of dynamic, commitment and revenue-sharing contracts; that a nonrebate offering manufacturer can use to safeguard his profit while his competitor offers customer rebates in a supply chain consisting of two manufacturers and a common retailer.

We consider a two-period supply chain model to explore optimal decisions under eight possible scenarios based on the contract and rebate offering decisions. Because the manufacturers are selling substitutable products, therefore, a customer rebate on one of the products negatively impacts the selling quantity of other. Optimal price, rebate, and quantities are examined and compared to explore the strategic choice for both the rebate offering and non-rebate offering manufacturer. Comparative evaluation is conducted to pinpoint how the parameters such as contract parameters and its nature affect the members.

The results demonstrate that all these contracts instigate the rebate offering manufacturer to provide a higher rebate, but do not ensure a higher profit. If the revenue sharing contract is offered to the common retailer, the effectiveness of the rebate program might reduce significantly, and the rebate offering manufacturer might receives lower profits. A non-rebate offering manufacturer might use a commitment contract to ensure higher profits for all the members and make sure the common retailer continues the product.

The effect of customer rebate vs. supply chain contract under competition has not yet been explored comprehensively. Therefore, the study contributes to the literature regarding interplay among pricing decision, contract choice and rebate promotion in a two-period setting. The conceptual and managerial insights contribute to a better understanding of strategic decision-making for both competing manufacturers under consumer rebates.