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The purpose of this paper is to present a generic framework to assess and simulate outsourcing risks in the supply chain.

This combination approach involves a qualitative risk analysis methodology termed as the supply chain risk‐failure mode and effect analysis (SCR‐FMEA) which integrates risk identification, analysis and mitigation actions together to evaluate supply chain outsourcing risk. The qualitative risk assessment will allow risk manager to provide a visual presentation of imminent risks using the risk map. Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) on the imminent risks of delivery outsourcing using the Milk‐Run system is adopted.

With basic statistical concepts, key performance variables and the risk of delivery outsourcing are analyzed. It is found that a newly implemented delivery outsourcing arrangement on the Milk‐Run system reduces the average customer lead‐time and total cost. However, a certain extent of risk or uncertainty can still be detected due to the presence of variation.

This paper reveals that company can manage the risk by adopting a systematic method for identifying the potential risks before outsourcing and MCS can be applied for examining the quantifiable risks such as lead time and cost.

The paper provides a generic guideline for practitioners to assess logistics outsourcing, especially for logistics management consultants and professionals for evaluating the risk and impact of outsourcing. It is believed that the proposed risk assessment framework can help to analyze the operational cost uncertainty and ensure the stability of the supply chain. However, the limitation of this research is that the full spectrum of outsourcing risk, especially the non‐quantifiable risk may not be analyzed by MCS.

This paper proposed an integrated framework which combines qualitative and quantitative method together for managing outsourcing risk. This research provides a standardized metric to quantify risk in the supply chain so as to determine the effectiveness of outsourcing.

The competition in market penetration between the traditional and online channels has been intensified. The purpose of this paper is to assess predictors of business‐to‐consumer (B2C) channel preference and investigate the consumers' attitudes towards different shopping channels.

An analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is applied to assess factors influencing consumers' channel attitudes based on an empirical survey which focuses on three different product types: books/CDs, electronics, and fashion products.

The results reveal that price, product variety, and accessibility, respectively, are the dominant predictors of B2C channel preference. It is found that consumers' utility value of buying online decreases in the online quality uncertainty level.

The sample focuses on the age group of 20‐40. Since this group of people are generally more skilled and confident on internet technology, it is unclear whether the insights obtained could extend to a more unbiased sample.

This paper provides insights into the relative importance of factors affecting consumers' channel preference, which are helpful for practitioners in terms of coming up with more effective channel improvement plans and strategies under limited resources.

This is the first study that applies AHP to assess consumers' channel preference. This approach, which does not require restrictive assumptions, takes into account the difficulty of giving precise judgments by allowing respondents to be inconsistent to some extent.

Partnering has drawn attention from both academics and practitioners in the construction industry in the context of construction and facilities management. The past decades have seen a number of articles reporting the application of partnering in construction. The Chinese construction industry is one of the largest industries in the world; however, to the authors' best knowledge, no project in mainland China has adopted this procurement approach in a formal and systematic manner as yet. This paper presents a timely study that aims to investigate the feasibility of implementing the partnering concept into Chinese industry and to understand the current barriers to this concept in China.

The study employed a qualitative approach to investigate the factors that support or impede the implementation of partnering in mainland China. The methodology encompassed a critical review of relevant laws, regulations, and policy documents; and semi‐structured interviews.

The findings indicate that the partnering practice is feasible in the construction industry of China due to the large demand brought about by China's strong economic growth and government support. However, the implementation of partnering in the Chinese construction industry is being impeded by the restrictions of the current Chinese regulatory framework and tender evaluation framework, the incompatible features of Chinese culture and the general lack of trust.

Six strategies that help to facilitate the implementation of partnering in China have been developed based on the supporting and impeding factors identified in this study. It is worth noting that not all aspects of Chinese culture are compatible with partnering principles. This study offers a useful reference to implement collaborative contracting models such as partnering in developing countries with a consideration of new factors such as political environment and emerging economies.

This paper aims to review the literature on mobile information services. It considers only peer-reviewed papers published in English between 2004 and 2014.

The method of systematic review was adopted to collect and analyse the relevant literature. The searches were conducted during the last week of July 2014 on different databases, and in total, 76 papers were considered after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Seven themes emerged: “introducing mobile libraries”, “reporting on current trends”, “exploring users’ perceptions of libraries’ mobile services”, “presenting libraries’ mobile services”, “presenting mobile technology use in libraries”, “reporting case studies” and “reporting on evaluation of libraries’ mobile services”. It is evident that research on mobile libraries is very recent and focuses mainly on raising the Library and Information Science profession’s awareness of providing mobile information services.

This literature review focused only on peer-reviewed papers published between 2004 and 2014 in English.

This paper summarises and critically presents the relevant literature on libraries offering mobile information services. It informs libraries and librarians’ understanding of recent developments in mobile technology for the successful provision of information services.

This paper aims to review some of the current challenges that international money laundering schemes are posing in the Chinese banking sector. Anti-money laundering (AML) systems in China are relatively new, and customer due diligence checks and other AML systems are underdeveloped in some areas.

The paper considers a particular case example of a multi-company organization that has known links to China. This company has been the target of both European and US investigations for suspected embezzlement and money laundering, and yet is still in operation.

The paper considers the complexities of this organization and how a seemly innocent link to a used clothing charity can fund an international organization spanning several countries. The paper offers a list of basic indicators of risk that could be applied to a risk-based system used within the Chinese banking context by using this group as an example.

The paper uses empirical and academic studies from other authors working in this region and supports many of the findings of the need to develop stronger risk-based, as opposed to rules-based, systems for managing AML risk assessment. Previous work by the author and suggestions from other authors are both used to suggest a basic framework for AML risk assessment. The paper concludes by reiterating the fact that China, like all other countries, is now operating in an international banking context, in much the same way that international organized crime is also operating at a global level.

This paper aims to provide an overview of education system reform in China since 1978, and its practical implications.

Data were collected from literature review and interview. An overview of education system reform and its practical implications was found through data analysis.

There has been two types of education system reforms in China since 1978. The first type is school education system reform, and the second is education management system reform.

A point arising is how to reform the education system at the national level.

This is the first time the researcher has studied education system reform and its characteristics in China since 1978, and it can help people to understand education system reform in China systematically.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of enterprise is influenced by the enterprise digital transformation. In addition, this study explains how enterprise digital transformation affects ESG performance.

The sample covers 4,646 nonfinancial companies listed on China’s A-share market from 2009 to 2021. The study adopts the fixed-effects multiple linear regression to perform the data analysis.

The study finds that enterprise digital transformation has a significant inverted U-shaped impact on ESG performance. Moderate digital transformation can improve enterprise ESG performance, whereas excessive digital transformation will bring new organizational conflicts and increase enterprise costs, which is detrimental to ESG performance. This inverted U-shaped effect is more pronounced in industrial cities, manufacturing industries and enterprises with less financing constraints and executives with financial backgrounds. Enterprise digital transformation mainly affects ESG performance by affecting the level of internal information communication and disclosure, the level of internal control and the principal-agent cost.

The government should take multiple measures to encourage enterprises to choose appropriate digital transformation based on their own production behaviors and development strategies, encourage them to innovate and upgrade their organizational management and development models in conjunction with digital transformation and guide them to use digital technology to improve ESG performance.

This study shows that irrational digital transformation cannot effectively improve the ESG performance of enterprises and promote the sustainable development of the country. Enterprises should carry out reasonable digital transformation according to their own development needs and finally improve the green and sustainable development ability of enterprises and promote the sustainable development of society.

This study examines the relationship between enterprise digital transformation and ESG performance. Different from the linear relationship between the two in previous major studies, this study proves the inverse U-shaped relationship between enterprise digital transformation and ESG performance through mathematical theoretical model derivation and empirical test. This study also explores in detail how corporate digital transformation affects ESG performance, as well as discusses heterogeneity at the city, industry and firm levels. It is proposed that enterprises should take into account their own characteristics and carry out reasonable digital transformation according to their development needs.

China represents around 20% of the world's population, and her economy is still performing well under economic crisis. Historical events have shaped different parts of China with different economic developments and cultural encounters. The most prominent difference is between Hong Kong and the Mainland. This chapter would like to examine the development and issues of fashion retailing in China. For better understanding, this chapter starts with a brief discussion on apparel industry development and fashion culture in Hong Kong and the Mainland, follows by historical development and then presents systems of fashion retailing in both Hong Kong and the Mainland. Desktop research and exploratory research techniques were employed. Stores of international fashion luxury brands in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing were visited. Comparison of branding issues, particularly for luxury market in Hong Kong and the Mainland are discussed, so are future directions of fashion retailing in these places.