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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting is a widely accepted procedure for firms to disclose their performance in multiple domains, including environmental protection, labour welfare, protection of human rights, community services, contribution to society and pursuit of product safety. This study aims to investigate whether and how board interlocks affect firms’ decisions with respect to CSR reporting. This study argues that board interlocks act as an important source of social pressure and firms are influenced by their peer firms to adopt CSR reporting.

This paper sampled listed companies on China’s Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2009 to 2015. The data were collected from Runling database and China Stock Market and Accounting Research database. A multi-period logit model was used to conduct the main regression analysis and the propensity score matching method was used in the robustness checks.

A study based on a sample of Chinese publicly listed firms from 2009 to 2015 confirms the argument and shows that sharing a common director on the board with a previous CSR reporter facilitates the firm’s engagement in CSR reporting. Furthermore, this study shows that the influence of board interlocks on CSR reporting depends on the following three characteristics: status of the interlocking director, size of the linked CSR reporter and performance implications of previous CSR activities.

The interpretation of the current findings should be considered in light of these limitations. First, while board interlocks are an important social aspect of institutional pressure, other types of social pressure exist. Second, the focus is on CSR reporting decisions. However, CSR reporting can also be symbolic, with little substantive quality to improve CSR-related activities. Third, this study argues that both regulatory and social pressures influence the decision to report on CSR. However, this study was unable to determine the weight of each pressure. Future research should follow this direction. Finally, the influence of certain behaviours through interlocks is stronger in the initial stage of the institutionalisation process.

The findings of this study have important implications for practitioners. First, the messaging role of interlocking directors suggests that director selection should consider the effectiveness of information transfer. Knowing and analysing specific interlock and its links with the firm’s strategy is very important. Meanwhile, firms should be vigilant that the balance between the access to information and loss of autonomy because searching for information related to firms’ strategic decisions might challenge current strategy. Second, the results of the study suggest that to effectively urge companies to engage in CSR reporting, government and policy makers should consider beyond institutional pressure, but also be sensitive to the social pressure exerted upon the companies.

The positive role of board interlocks on corporate voluntary CSR reporting can not only make valuable contributions to the Chinese society but also, as an important participant of global economy and trade, the Chinese interlocking directors’ contribution to CSR reporting have global benefits.

This study extends the institutional perspective on CSR reporting by uncovering the effect of social pressure. It advances the literature on the antecedents of CSR reporting by linking board interlocks to CSR reporting. Finally, the study enriches the broader interlock literature by delineating three specific characteristics of interlocks that influence CSR reporting.

The board independence norm has shaped corporate governance globally, but research on the supply of independent directors (IDs) is limited. “New careers” studies suggest that dynamic non-conventional career paths are evolving, but empirical evidence is mostly limited to Western societies. The authors studied reasons for academics to consider taking on an ID role in firms in China.

Employing a quantitative methodology, data were collected via a survey targeting 1,500 academics, representing a quarter of business-linked academics in China's National Key Universities. The response rate was 55% and, after eliminating irrelevant responses, the sample used comprised 581 academics, 111 of whom have taken on an ID role.

Career orientation and work attitudes play significant roles in decision-making around career success. Becoming an ID can be a rewarding and positive career path for academics who look for additional responsibility, income and impact. This new academic career path manifests in how career actors interact with each other to reach a state of equilibrium in a wider career ecosystem. Appointing academics with relevant knowledge and willingness to create impact can help organisations – both firms and academic institutions.

Becoming an ID can increase future collaborations and success in terms of research and corporate governance, and offer individuals another route to career success.

The results contribute to research on career studies and corporate governance, revealing a new source of talent for firms and a new career path for academics.

Teaching by demonstration (TbD) is a promising way for robot learning skills in human and robot collaborative hybrid manufacturing lines. Traditionally, TbD systems have only concentrated on how to enable robots to learn movement skills from humans. This paper aims to develop an extended TbD system which can also enable learning stiffness regulation strategies from humans.

Here, the authors propose an extended dynamical motor primitives (DMP) framework to achieve this goal. In addition to the advantages of the traditional ones, the authors’ framework can enable robots to simultaneously learn stiffness and the movement from human demonstrations. Additionally, Gaussian mixture model (GMM) is used to capture the features of movement and of stiffness from multiple demonstrations of the same skill. Human limb surface electromyography (sEMG) signals are estimated to obtain the reference stiffness profiles.

The authors have experimentally demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed framework. It shows that the authors approach could allow the robot to execute tasks in a variable impedance control mode with the learned movement trajectories and stiffness profiles.

In robot skill acquisition, DMP is widely used to encode robotic behaviors. So far, however, these DMP modes do not provide the ability to properly represent and generalize stiffness profiles. The authors argue that both movement trajectories and stiffness profiles should be considered equally in robot skill learning. The authors’ approach has great potential of applications in the future hybrid manufacturing lines.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the phenomenon of returnee entrepreneurs, their venturing efforts and the impact of the institutional environment they operate in, and thereby to propose a conceptual model depicting how returnee entrepreneurs create and operate new ventures and interact with the institutional environment.

This study followed a multiple case study approach based on data collected from in-depth inquiries into 11 returnee entrepreneurs and their ventures in China which was analysed inductively.

Analysis of case study data resulted in a conceptual model of returnee entrepreneurs illustrating micro-level characteristics of the phenomenon and the interplay with the institutional environment of an emerging economy. Insights from the case study are discussed in terms of implications for entrepreneurial motivations, human and social capital, estrangement from the home country, internationalisation behaviour and objectives of returnee-owned ventures.

Previous research on the phenomenon of returnee entrepreneurs is highly fragmented and has largely focussed on specific and isolated outcomes. This study offers a holistic inquiry contributing to a better understanding of the phenomenon as a whole and presenting key properties of the phenomenon.

As part of the mobility of global talent, returnee entrepreneurs from emerging markets with advance technology are particularly challenged by the increasing geopolitical tension. Returnee entrepreneurs have a stronger reliance on the political relationship when establishing successful business at the home countries. Yet this connection with home-country political actors can negatively affect their technology competence obtained from the host countries during geopolitical uncertainty and turbulence. We empirically investigate the challenges that technology-advanced returnee entrepreneurs encountered in the home market from the changes occurred while they were away, as well as the needs to obtain critical resource and gain market entry for adapting the advance technology possessed from aboard. Our aim, nevertheless, is to expand the discussion of the returnee entrepreneurs in the context of current world where unpredictable geopolitical tensions can jeopardize the success of their business. Our study contributes a nuanced understanding of the key factor that driving business success may turn to a trap that constrains returnee entrepreneurship, and accordingly proposes a future research agenda for returnee entrepreneurship and international human mobility in general.

The practice of facility management (FM) has been evolving with the rapid development of pervasive sensing technologies (PSTs) such as sensors, automatic identification (auto-ID), laser scanning and photogrammetry. Despite the proliferation of research on the use of PSTs for FM, a comprehensive review of such research is missing from the literature. This study aims to cover the knowledge void by examining the status quo and challenges of the selected PSTs with a focus on FM.

This paper reviewed 204 journal papers recounting cases of using PSTs for FM. The reviewed papers were extracted from Elsevier Scopus database using the advanced search.

Findings of this study revealed that PSTs and FM applications form a many-to-many mapping, i.e. one PST could facilitate many FM applications, and one application can also be supported by various PSTs. It is also found that energy modeling and management is the most referred purpose in FM to adopt PSTs, while space management, albeit important, received the least attention. Five challenges are identified, which include high investment on PSTs, data storage problem, absence of proper data exchange protocols for data interoperability, a lack of mature data processing methods for data utilization and privacy of users.

This paper paints a full picture of PSTs adoption for FM. It pinpoints the promising explorations for tackling the key challenges to future development.

Little attention has been given to the mental and physical health impacts of COVID-19 on the academic public health workforce. Academic public health is an important support mechanism for public health practice, providing expertise and workforce training, conducting research, disseminating evidence-based scientific information to both public health and lay audiences, and serving as a supplementary workforce when additional resources are needed. These roles become more important during a public health emergency, particularly during a prolonged public health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the COVID-19 response, the roles of academic public health have expanded to include developing and implementing contact tracing, surveillance, testing, and vaccination programs for universities and their surrounding communities, all while continuing to prepare students and support the public health practice workforce in their ongoing efforts. As in other responder groups, this has resulted in significant mental health effects and burnout among public health academicians. The authors suggest important steps that can be taken to improve the resilience of the academic public health workforce and to support their contributions during prolonged public health emergencies.

The importance of sustainable supply chain management practices (SSCMPs) in the financial performance of firms is increasing significantly. However, the influence of SSCMPs on financial performance can vary across sectors and contexts. This research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the influence of SSCMPs on the financial sustainability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the food processing industry. For this, the influence of sustainable environment practices, customer and supplier relationships, social SCMPs and lean supply chain on the financial sustainability of food processing SMEs is studied.

A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data from 56 food processing SMEs in Mbeya, Tanzania. The study employed a cross-sectional research design and a census approach to capture data from all eligible SMEs in the target population. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and multiple linear regression (MLR) were utilized as the primary data analysis techniques.

The findings of the study revealed a positive and significant influence of various SSCMPs on the financial sustainability of food processing SMEs. Specifically, sustainable environment management practices (β = 0.147, p = 0.000), supplier relationship management (SRM) (β = 0.715, p = 0.001), customer relationship management (CRM) (β = 0.894, p = 0.016), social SCMP (β = 0.901, p = 0.005) and lean supply chain practices (β = 0.675, p = 0.003) were all found to have a significant effect on the financial sustainability of the surveyed food processing SMEs.

The study recommends the need to plan and integrate SSCMPs in firms’ operation processes, promote collaboration and networking and offer capacity-building initiatives that equip food processing SMEs with the necessary skills and knowledge to implement SSCMPs effectively. These will nurture effective adoption of SSCMP, leading to improved operations, environmental performance, financial sustainability and long-term viability of the sector.

While SSCMPs have gained attention in the literature, the specific focus on its impact on financial sustainability in the context of food processing SMEs adds originality to this research. Industry stakeholders and policymakers can utilize the findings of this study to develop supportive policies and programs that promote sustainable supply chain practices and enhance financial sustainability in the food processing sector.

In recent years, a great number of top conferences and workshops on artificial intelligence (AI) were held in China, showing Chinese AI plays an important role in the world. Meanwhile, Chinese government announced an ambitious scheme, “New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan,” for the country to become a world leader in AI technologies by 2030. The AI research in China has covered various aspects, ranging from chips to algorithms. This chapter attempts to give an overview of the recent advances of AI research and development in China, as well as some perspectives on the future development of AI in China.

Purpose – Emerging work on returnee entrepreneurs has done little to examine how these individuals coordinate the resources they need to exploit their opportunities. Existing research has recognized the role of context, but this has been quite limited. The chapter provides a novel analytical framework that integrates a resource orchestration perspective with recognition of the heterogeneity of context.

Design/Methodology – The authors build upon returnee entrepreneurship, strategic entrepreneurship theory, and theories relating to context and spillovers to distinguish the implications of temporal, institutional, social, and spatial dimensions of context for resource selection and coordination.

Findings – The authors identify a range of research themes relating to each context. The authors also discuss methodological issues relating to both qualitative and quantitative research.

Originality/Value – The intention is to spur further entrepreneurship, strategy, and international business research.