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This study aims to empirically examine how blockchain, one of the emerging Industry 4.0 technologies, can combat climate change by improving their green innovation performance, particularly under conditions of policy uncertainty.

This study utilizes the difference-in-difference-in-difference (DDD) method to explore the effect of blockchain on enterprises' green innovation performance. The analysis is based on data from Chinese-listed enterprises spanning the period from 2013 to 2021.

First, the adoption of blockchain in enterprises registered in areas designated as low-carbon pilot cities can significantly improve their green innovation performance. Second, the enhancement of green innovation efficiency emerges as the primary driving force behind the adoption of blockchain, thereby leading to improved green innovation performance. Lastly, it is observed that blockchain adoption has a greater positive impact on improving green efficiency in private enterprises compared to state-owned enterprises in China.

For managers, the findings can provide valuable insights to help them better prepare for the challenges and opportunities presented by the era of Industry 4.0. For policymakers, this study offers valuable insights into the interaction between new technologies in Industry 4.0 and the performance of green innovation, thereby aiding in the formulation of effective policies.

This study contributes to bridging the existing gap between the adoption of new technologies, such as blockchain, and their potential impact on climate change. Moreover, this research enriches practitioners' understanding of how new technologies in the era of Industry 4.0 can be applied to address significant challenges like climate change.

Innovation has been acknowledged as the key for modern industries. However, the construction industry is criticised for being poor in innovation performance compared to other industry sectors. Large construction firms are the main contributor to technological innovation in the construction industry, but the driving process of their technological innovation has not yet been fully investigated in previous studies. The purpose of this paper is to provide quantitative analysis of the technological innovation driving process of large construction firms.

An extended crépon, duguet and mairesse (CDM) model has been developed to analyse the key influencing factors for technological innovation in construction firms. The sample data are selected from the world’s largest construction market, China, and include 129 listed construction firms.

The results show significant positive correlation between R&D investment and innovation output and also between innovation output and performance. The effect of influencing factors on the R&D investment, innovation output and performance are also revealed by the empirical study. The underlying reasons are discussed and suggestions are given for the construction industry to improve the technological innovation capacity of construction firms.

This research contributes to the literature of construction innovation and benefits practitioners by providing a quantitative approach to demonstrate the driving process of innovation in construction firms.

This paper aims to combine the grooves with an annular air thrust bearing with multi-hole restrictors and discusses the influence of the groove parameters on the bearing performance.

Four models of aerostatic bearings with grooves of different geometries are established. The pressure distribution, load-carrying capacity (LCC), stiffness and flow characteristics of the flow field in the bearing clearances are obtained by computational fluid dynamics simulation.

The numerical and simulation results show that air bearing with grooved restrictors can slow down the pressure drop at the air inlet and increase the LCC and stiffness of the bearing. The gas flow in the aerostatic bearing is also studied, and the air vortex in the recess is analyzed.

This research optimizes the structure of the annular air thrust bearing, analyzes the gas vortex in the recess, improves the LCC and stiffness of the bearing and provides a reference for the bearing in the selection of groove parameters.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-01-2023-0006/

Stab-resistant body armor (SRBA) can protect the human body from injury as a result of stabbing by sharp projectiles. However, in its current design SRBA, it has not been widely adopted for use, because of its weight and poor flexibility. Herein, this paper aims to detail a new type of SRBA that is inspired by the armor plating of mammals and is fabricated using laser sintering (LS) technology.

This new type of SRBA was fabricated using LS technology. The laser sintered SRBA was subjected to a stab resistance performance test that conformed to the GA 68-2008 Chinese National Standard. The stab resistance response of the novel structured, stab resistance test plates in this study was analyzed using the using the AUTODYN explicit module in ANSYS-Workbench.

The structure of the novel stab resistance plate was designed and the optimum structural parameters were tested, discussed and achieved. The mechanism of dissipation of the impact energy by the pyramidal structures of the novel SRBA was studied, and it was found that this structure dispersed the kinetic energy of the knife and minimized the structural damage to the plate. Interlinks inspired by the pangolin hierarchy structure were designed and used to fabricate a large piece of laser sintered body armor.

High-performance laser sintered stab resistance plate was produced via the material and structure studies, which could reduce 40 per cent weight on the stab resistance body armor and increase the wearability.

The purpose of this study is to explore how inclusive leadership promotes organizational performance through ambidextrous innovation (i.e. exploratory and exploitative innovation). Moreover, the authors examine the moderating role of environmental uncertainty in the relationship between inclusive leadership and ambidextrous innovation.

This study conducted a questionnaire survey of high-tech enterprises in China and obtained 325 useable samples. The hypotheses were tested using latent path analysis and ordinary least squares regression.

The results indicate that exploratory and exploitative innovations mediate the relationship between inclusive leadership and organizational performance. Moreover, environmental uncertainty positively moderated the relationship between inclusive leadership and exploitative innovation.

Managers should value the critical role of inclusive leadership in promoting exploratory and exploitative innovation, which in turn improves organizational performance. Meanwhile, managers need to pay attention to the risk caused by environmental uncertainty.

This paper extends the influence of inclusive leadership on innovation from the individual level to the organizational level and reveals the influence mechanism of inclusive leadership on organizational performance. In addition, this study supplements the knowledge regarding the boundary conditions under which the influence of inclusive leadership is strengthened or weakened.

This study aims to present a meta-analysis of the use of serious educational games in museums. The analysis is based on a critical literature review that maps educational roles of museums against serious educational games used in support of those roles. The meta-analysis focuses on the specific context of informal learning in museums.

The research design presented in this study is based on a meta-analysis research design that consists of a critical literature review, a multi-matrix representation of findings of the literature review and a conceptual visualization of the multidisciplinary area of the usage of serious games in support of educational roles in museums.

Clear and detailed categorizations of educational roles and serious games types for informal learning are presented. These are followed by matching these educational roles with published reports of the use of serious games within museums. The study concludes with observations and a conceptual map of the design of serious games for museums.

This study presents the first meta-analysis of research in this emergent multidisciplinary field. It will help serious game designers, museum educators and educational practitioners to make decisions regarding the choice of game type, customization and content design to support informal learning in the specific context of museum educational activities.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the attitudes of tourists toward digital marketing applications related to peer-to-peer short-term rental services within the sharing economy in the tourism sector. It aims to identify the factors that make Greek tourists to use these applications and to classify them into groups according to their attitudes toward these websites and to profile each group of tourists according to their personal and demographic characteristics and their preferences regarding their holidays/travel.

A primary survey was conducted in April 2018 for a random selected sample of Greek tourists. Principal component analysis was conducted to identify the main factors that affect tourists in using digital marketing application related to peer-to-peer short-term rental services within the sharing economy in the tourism sector. Cluster analysis was performed to classify tourists into groups according to their attitudes toward the use of these websites while discriminant analysis was conducted to check cluster predictability. Non-parametric tests, including the chi-square test, were performed to profile each strategic group according to their demographic characteristics and their preferences regarding their holidays/travel.

The study classified tourists into three groups, i.e. pioneers, convenience seekers and conscious, according to their attitudes toward the use of such applications.

The choice for the Greek context of the research is justified by the fact that Greece has suffered from recession in the last decade, but it is also a tourism-friendly country. The empirical results of this pioneer study should trigger further investigation. Although tourists’ behavior towards the adoption of digital marketing application related to peer-to-peer rental services within the sharing economy in the tourism sector might be culturally specific and the results are mainly applicable in the Greek market, they could be generalized in other countries with similar characteristics in both Greece and other parts with similar characteristics.

Tourists are extremely important both for developers and policy makers in tourism industry. For developers such information is important because the expectation of viable markets will motivate investments. For policy makers, this type of information will help them to respond more adequately through regulation tools and programs. From a practical perspective, the tourism operators may benefit from focusing on their differentiating features and aligning their marketing communication with their tourists’ aspirations by developing, optimizing and customizing their websites according to the needs of the customers and the extension of touristic activities to other sectors of tourism industry.

Visitors who choose Airbnb accommodations spend more days travelling; consequently, the market size of the tourism industry expands from the increase in the number of visitors.

The originality of the paper derives from the understanding of the tourists’ behavior toward the adoption of digital marketing applications related to peer-to-peer rental services within the sharing economy in the tourism sector. More specifically, it identifies the factors that make Greek tourists to use those applications, classifies them into groups according to their attitudes towards those websites and profiles each group of tourists according to their personal and demographic characteristics and their preferences regarding their holidays/travel.

Human resource (HR) process research emerged as a response to questions about how (bundles of) HR practices related to organizational outcomes. The goal of HR process research is to explain variability in employee and organization outcomes by focusing on how HR practices are intended (adopted) by senior managers, the way that these HR practices are implemented and communicated by line managers, and how employees perceive, understand, and attribute these HR practices. In the first part of this chapter, we present a review of 20 years of HR process research from the start, to how it developed, and is now maturing. Within the body of HR process research, several different research theoretical streams have emerged, which are largely studied in isolation without benefiting from each other. Therefore, in the second part of this chapter, we draw on previous work to propose a staged process model in which we integrate the different research streams of HR process research, recognizing contingencies in the model. This leads us to an agenda for future research and practical implications in the final part of the chapter.

When a firm implements certain HR practices, different employees attribute different motives and intentions to the firm with regard to those HR practices. Research on HR attributions has made progress toward understanding the relationship between HR practices and employee outcomes from a process perspective. However, this research is still fragmented and lacks a systematic typology of the different types of HR attributions and a compelling organizing research framework. Furthermore, a number of research gaps and opportunities have emerged regarding the nomological net of employee HR attributions. To address the gaps and capitalize on the opportunities, the authors propose an overarching theory-driven multi-level framework that guides the choice of the antecedents and outcomes of employee HR attributions and explains their relationships along with both mediating and moderating mechanisms. Drawing on signaling theory embedded in the proposed framework, the authors identify and categorize various antecedents of employee HR attributions to explain their relationships. The authors also use several additional theories such as social exchange and the job demands–resources model included in their review to identify and categorize various outcomes of employee HR attributions across levels of analysis (i.e., individual, collective [team/group/unit], organization) and explain their relationships. In addition, the proposed framework explains how individual-level employee HR attributions emerge at the collective level and influence collective processes and outcomes. The authors end their review by pinpointing future research needs and discussing related future research directions.