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The purpose of this paper is to apply Maslow's hierarchy of needs to extend the expectation‐confirmation model of information systems continuance (ECM‐IS) to analyze users' continuance intention of social networking services (SNSs).

A survey is conducted on 202 users of social networking services in China.

Fulfillment of self‐actualization needs has a significant impact on continuance intention; however, the direct impact of fulfillment of social needs on continuance intention is not significant but fully mediated by satisfaction.

The first limitation is that the participants in the sample are undergraduates. Second, this study has used cross‐sectional survey data to empirically test the model. Third, the survey is conducted in a single country.

The results of this paper provide several marketing implications to better manage SNSs. First, SNS managers should enhance instant communication functions, develop a platform that is convenient for users to express themselves and provide more entertainment functions. Second, SNS managers should focus on users' expectations and experiences about website functions and adjust or update website functions accordingly.

This paper contributes to the research on continuance intention of social networking services from the perspective of Maslow's hierarchy of needs to capture motivations of continuance intention. The authors believe their conceptualizations of fulfillment of self‐actualization needs and fulfillment of social needs, as well as their substantial findings, would be useful to researchers and practitioners alike to better study and manage continuance intention of socially‐oriented online services.

The purpose of this paper is to use the framework of rule-based and relation-based governance to examine the evolution of governance environment in the East Asian region including China, South Korea and Taiwan.

Both qualitative and quantitative evidences are presented to demonstrate the paths these East Asian countries take in their transitions from relation-based governance to rule-based governance. Based on the framework, this analysis sheds light on the debate on whether East Asian economies will eventually move away from relation-based governance to rule-based societies.

The authors find that relation-based governance has helped East Asian countries achieve rapid economic growth in the early stages of their development. However, as the scale and scope of East Asian economies expand, continuing to rely on it may hinder their further development and therefore these countries should adopt a rule-based governance system in order to be efficient and competitive in the world market. While South Korea and Taiwan have made substantial progress in this transition, China has just embarked on the process.

This paper is among the first to systematically review the theories and evidence of the transition and the challenges East Asian countries face during the process.

This article’s indented contribution is to provide novel theoretical insights and empirical observations on “who gets what” in the way of incomes, including wages. The article challenges the conventional wisdom about stratification, especially power and status, as an outcome or function of economic distribution. It posits that income distribution is conditional on pre‐existing social stratification expressed in antecedent differences in class, power, status and related factors.

In most portfolio performance studies, a reference portfolio is used to assess the performance of a portfolio manager. The choice of an appropriate reference portfolio is essential to yield a fair and unbiased evaluation of the manager. In the following analyses, category‐based benchmarks are assessed against established benchmarks to evaluate, which alternative accurately evaluates a portfolio manager's performance. The results indicate that the category‐based benchmarks are more appropriate comparison reference for evaluating the systematic risk of equity portfolios and equity security returns.

With the recent surge of plant-based menu items, it is critical to understand how to effectively communicate such products to consumers. This study aims to examine the impact of various descriptive names on consumers’ responses to novel meat alternatives in China, one of the emerging yet unexplored markets.

Two studies were conducted using a single factor ([descriptive name: “Renzao Rou [artificial meat]” vs “Sushi Rou [vegetarian/vegan meat]” vs “Zhiwu Rou” [plant-based meat]) between-subjects experimental design.

Study 1 shows that “Sushi Rou” and “Zhiwu Rou,” triggering more positive name associations, led to higher future consumption intention than “Renzao Rou.” A qualitative analysis demonstrates the differences in the name associations. Study 2 replicates the naming effect and examines the role of specific product attributes. Perceived health, naturalness and novelty are the main drivers of favorable responses to “Zhiwu Rou” (vs “Renzao Rou”), whereas perceived health, taste and naturalness mediate the positive effect for “Sushi Rou” (vs “Renzao Rou”).

Food service operators interested in introducing meat alternatives in China should carefully choose the product name to attract specific segments. International chains should consider cultural norms when expanding to emerging markets.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to reveal the product naming effect on meat alternative products from the perspective of marketing communications. It contributes to a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanism driving Chinese consumers’ responses.

Deadlock is a rather undesirable phenomenon and must be well solved in flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). This paper aims to propose a general iterative deadlock control method for a class of generalized Petri nets (GPN), namely, G-systems, which can model an FMS with assembly and disassembly operations of multiple resource acquisition. When given an uncontrolled G-system prone to deadlocks, the work focuses on the synthesis of a near-optimal, non-blocking supervisor based on reachability graph (RG) analysis.

The concept of a global idle place (GIP) for an original uncontrolled G-system is presented. To simplify the RG computation of an uncontrolled G-system, a GIP is added temporarily to the net model during monitor computation steps. Starting with one token and then by gradually increasing the number of tokens in the GIP at each iteration step, the related net system is obtained. The minimal-covered-set of all bad markings of the related net system suffering from deadlock can be identified and then removed by additional monitors through an established place-invariant control method. Consequently, all related systems are live, and the GIP is finally removed when the non-blockingness of the controlled system is achieved. Meanwhile, the redundancy of monitors is also checked.

A typical G-system example is provided to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed method. Experiments show that the proposed method is easy to use and provides very high behavioral permissiveness for G-system. Generally, it can achieve an optimal or a near-optimal solution of the non-blocking supervisor.

In this work, the concept of GIP for G-systems is presented for synthesis non-blocking supervisors based on RG analysis. By using GIP, an effective deadlock control method is proposed. Generally, the proposed method can achieve an optimal or a near-optimal, non-blocking supervisor for an uncontrolled G-system prone to deadlocks.

Using a discrete-time version of the arbitrage-free Nelson–Siegel (AFNS) term structure model, the authors examine how yield curves in the US and China react to exchange rate policy shocks as China introduces gradual reforms to make its exchange rate regime more flexible. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The authors characterize the specification of the discrete-time AFNS model, prove the uniqueness of the solution for model identification, perform specification analysis on its canonical form and detail the MCMC estimation method with a fast and reliable prior extraction step.

Model decomposition reveals that in the US yield responses, changes in risk premia for medium- to long-term yields dominate changes in yield expectation for short- to medium-term yields, indicating that the portfolio rebalancing effect due to varying risk perception is stronger than the signaling effect due to policy rate expectation.

The results are helpful in diagnosing market sentiment and exchange rate risk pricing as China further internationalizes its currency.

The methodology can be easily extended to study yield curve responses to other scenarios of policy shocks or regime changes.

This study investigates the correlation between financial inclusion and legal system quality.

Pearson correlation analysis was used to assess the correlation between financial inclusion and legal system quality.

The author finds evidence for a positive correlation between financial inclusion and legal system quality. The findings suggest that improvements in legal system quality go hand in hand with improvements in the level of financial inclusion. More specifically, higher supply of ATM per 100,000 adults is correlated with stronger insolvency resolution framework among G7, European and non-European countries. Also, the number of bank branch per 100,000 adults is positively correlated with strong rule of law and legal rights in non-European countries. Also, the number of ATMs per 100,000 adults is positively correlated with strength of insolvency resolution framework and negatively correlated with the time it takes to resolve insolvency before, during and after the global financial crisis.

No study has explicitly analyzed the correlation between financial inclusion and legal system quality. This present study contributes to the literature by filling this research gap.

The purpose of this paper is to explore two dimensions of leadership practices (i.e. teaching and learning and sources of power) used by two exemplary principals in mainland China against a background of education reform and to identify how broader contextual factors have shaped these two dimensions of their leadership.

An exploratory case study was used that drew upon semi‐structured interviews, observations and document analysis. Interviews were conducted with two principals, six teachers from each of the two schools and a superintendent who was the supervisor of the two principals.

The findings reveal that there are some common elements in both of the leaders' practices but also some subtle differences. Both leaders emphasise teaching and learning. One sees herself as curriculum expert; the other delegate teaching responsibilities. While both uses a top down approach, one principal uses an adversarial approach and the other a more facilitative approach.

The study used a small sample size. It explored the leaders' practices in the light of broader contextual factors rather than personal factors or gender‐based factors

Given the limited empirical research conducted on female principals in mainland China, this qualitative study provides insights into two dimensions of leadership used by two exemplary principals and explains their practices in the light of critical contextual factors such as contemporary and traditional Chinese culture and the school's organisational context.