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“Metaverse” has become a buzzword in the Chinese stock market. However, it remains unclear whether a firm's metaverse-related announcements will elicit positive stock market reactions. Whether and how stakeholder reactions are influenced by a firm's metaverse-related readiness also needs to be further explored. This study aims to discuss the aforementioned objective.

The authors derived a set of factors based on readiness theory and business ecosystem literature and extend them into the context of the metaverse. The authors used a sample of 642 Chinese listed firms in 2021 to investigate the hypotheses through the event study.

The study’s findings show that metaverse coverage induces a positive stock market reaction, but it is subject to three moderating effects. The authors introduce the novel concepts of IT readiness, ecosystem readiness and digital infrastructure readiness as the moderators. Stakeholders perceive metaverse announcements as overhyped, and stock prices do not fluctuate significantly after a metaverse announcement when the listed firms are not ready to embrace the metaverse.

This study is one of the first that introduces the event study method into the metaverse research, and it reveals that different levels of readiness influence stakeholders' evaluations and reactions to corporate metaverse coverage. This provides empirical evidence on metaverse development in China from the stock market's perspective.

Measurement-while-drilling (MWD) system has been used to provide trajectory and inclination parameters of the oil and gas well. Fluxgate magnetometer is a traditional choice for one MWD system; however, it cannot obtain effective trajectory parameters in nonmagnetic environments. Fiber-optic-gyroscope (FOG) inclinometer system is a favorable substitute of fluxgate magnetometer, which can avoid the flaws associated with magnetic monitoring devices. However, there are some limitations and increasing surveying errors in this system under high impact conditions. This paper aims to overcome these imperfections of the FOG inclinometer system.

To overcome the imperfections, filtering algorithms are used to improve the precision of the equipment. The authors compare the low-pass filtering algorithm with the wavelet de-noising algorithm applied to real experimental data. Quantitative comparison of the error between the true and processed signal revealed that the wavelet de-noising method outperformed the low-pass filtering method. To achieve optimal positioning effects, the wavelet de-noising algorithm is finally used to inhibit the interference caused by the impact.

The experimental results show that the method proposed can ensure the azimuth accuracy lower than ±2 degrees and the inclination accuracy lower than ± 0.15 degrees under the condition of interval impact. The method proposed can overcome the interference generated by the impact in the well, which makes the instrument suitable for the measurement of small-diameter casing well.

After conducting the wavelet threshold filtering on the raw data of accelerometers, the noise generated by the impact is successfully suppressed, which is expected to meet the special requirement of the down-hole survey environment.

Vehicle lightweight design has positive implications for reducing energy consumption and abating greenhouse gas emissions. The traditional trailer axle design mainly focuses on the overall performance of the trailer axle. Only when the local performance does not meet the requirements will local performance optimization be done, such as local heat treatment to improve local strength. Such a design results in an uneven distribution of axle performance and excess performance in some local structures. The purpose of this study is to investigate the weight reduction on the premise of ensuring the structural dimensions of the outer surface of the axle remain unchanged and the reliability of the axle.

The axle is parameterized by computer aided design, and the optimized axle finite element model based on computer aided engineering is established and verified by taking the eight dimensions of the axle cavity structure which affect the performance as parameters. A genetic algorithm is used to optimize the axle cavity structure size and axle weight based on multiobjective optimization, and eight optimized size parameters of axle cavity structure are obtained.

The total weight of the optimized axle of TM1314 is reduced by 10.2 kg, and the weight reduction ratio reaches 10.7%. According to the optimized structural size of the axle, the specimen was trial-manufactured, and the bench tests of stiffness, strength and fatigue life were carried out according to the test requirements of the trailer axle standard (JT/T 475-2002). The test results show that the maximum deformation of the specimen is 2.46 mm, the strength safety factor of the specimen body and the steel plate spring seat are 6.71 and 6.86 and bear the alternating load more than 1.05 × 106 times, which meets the standard of the trailer axle and is better than the original design requirements of the trailer axle.

In this study, the multiobjective optimization model of the axle is established, the response surface is constructed by the Latin hypercube sampling design method and the optimal solution set is obtained by the multiobjective genetic algorithm. It has been verified by bench tests that it can achieve a weight reduction of 10.7% under the premise of the same structure and size of the outer surface of the axle. The lightweight method based on multiobjective optimization proposed in this paper can provide a reference for the lightweight design of other key vehicle components.

Extant research on the crowding-out effects of government subsidies on the positive role of firm innovation resources or activity remains limited. This paper aims to investigate the crowding-out effects of subsidies on the utilization of technological capabilities and also the contingency mechanisms of market-oriented economy based on the resource-based view (RBV), given the co-existence of the subsidies and technological capabilities for firm innovation in transitional economy.

This paper used panel data of 115 Chinese high-tech firms from 2002 to 2010. Fixed-effects model was used to test several hypotheses.

This paper empirically demonstrates that the subsidies crowd out the utilization of firms’ technological capabilities for invention outcomes in the near-term. Furthermore, this paper finds that the crowding-out effects are weaker when firms have high export intensity or are located in provinces with high market-oriented systems.

The findings of this paper apply to Chinese firms. Future research could test their generalizability to different samples and other transitional economies.

This paper highlights the crowding-out effects of the subsidies, revealing that high-tech firms should balance the direct effects and crowding-out effects of the subsidies.

This paper highlights the neglected interactions between the subsidies and technological capabilities based on RBV and provides a more nuanced understanding of the crowding-out effects of the subsidies in transitional economy.

This paper aims to use a negative perspective to investigate the effects of perceived deceptiveness and pressure on consumer donation and their underlying mechanisms in the context of asking for donations.

Study 1 used a qualitative approach to clarify the categories and dimensions of the research variables and explore their relationships. Study 2 empirically tested the hypotheses by combining a fictitious context and a real context related to asking for donations.

In the qualitative study, the data provided sufficient evidence to support the relationships in the theoretical model. The results of the empirical study showed that perceived deceptiveness negatively influences consumer donation, while perceived pressure positively affects donation amount. Notably, the discomfort of potential donors plays an important role in mediating these relationships.

This paper suggests a way for charities to raise more money, i.e. by cooperating with companies with good reputations, limited scandals and transparent supervisory mechanisms. Meanwhile, solicitors should pay attention to the adverse effects of discomfort to avoid generating resentment among consumers.

First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to use a negative perspective to examine the effects of perceived deceptiveness and pressure on consumer donation. Second, the use of cognitive dissonance theory to highlight the role of discomfort represents a novel contribution to the literature. Third, using a mixed-methods approach to achieve a robust conclusion provides valuable insights and extends the existing literature.

The study explores how pre-service teachers engage in Tong Ke Yi Gou (“Same lesson and different design”) as a Chinese version of lesson study in a language teacher education course.

Data were collected from multiple sources, including semi-structured interviews, field observations, as well as individual reflections constructed by the participants. The different data sources served to triangulate and enrich each other, shedding light on the student teachers’ learning experiences through lesson study.

The findings of the study reveal the participants’ enhanced motivation and participation through a process-oriented, collaborative design (i.e. joint lesson planning, micro-teaching, collaborative debrief and individual reflections). In addition, the participants engaged in constant comparisons at multiple levels, which collectively refined and expanded their pedagogical knowledge about language teaching. Such rich and collaborative experiences further contributed to their reflections on and for practice as future language teachers. On the other hand, the study also reveals the emotional challenges faced by some participants due to the competitive atmosphere brought by the comparative element embedded in the process of Tong Ke Yi Gou.

This study incorporates the mode of Tong Ke Yi Gou into a pre-service teacher education course in order to examine how it can benefit student teachers’ learning to teach. The findings highlight the power of “comparison” in promoting student teachers’ reflective and analytical thinking at multiple levels with practical implications for current pre-service teacher education programs.

This paper aims to analyse how both Lin’s birthplace identity and his Christian identity contributed to his fruitful public career and to ascertain which identity became the most significant.

Archival research is the main method used in this paper. The most important archives drawn from are the Daniel Tse Collection in the Special Collection and Archives of the Hong Kong Baptist University Library. Oral history has also been used in this paper to uncover more material that has not yet been discussed in existing scholarly works.

This paper argues that although Lin’s birthplace identity and social networks helped him to start his business career in Nam Pak Hong and develop into a leader in the local Chaozhou communities, these factors were insufficient to his becoming a respectable member of the Chinese elite in post-war Hong Kong. He became well known not because of his leading position in local Chaozhou communities or any great achievement he had obtained in business but because of his contribution to the development of Christian education. These achievements earned him a reputation as a “Christian educator”. Thus Lin’s Christian identity became more important than his birthplace identity in contributing to his successful public career.

This paper has value in showing how Christian influences interacted with various cultural factors in early Hong Kong. It also offers insights into Lin’s life and motivations as well as the history of the institutions he contributed to/founded. It not only furthers our understanding of the Chinese Christian business elite in early Hong Kong but also provides us with insights when further studying this group of people in other British colonies in Asia.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents of top-down knowledge hiding in buying and supplying firms.

This study uses a multiple case study methodology by considering four UAE-based firms and further employing 20 semi-structured interviews with managers of buying and supplying firms having a local and foreign nationality.

Based on the qualitative interviews, senior managers were found to be intentionally hiding knowledge from their managers based on five individual, three interpersonal and two firm-level reasons.

This study has some limitations. First, the results of this study are not generalizable to a broader population. Second, this study explores behavioural patterns with respect to United Arab Emirates culture only.

Firms can use the findings of this study to understand what really motivates senior managers to intentionally hide knowledge from their subordinates. Also, this study provides some constructive guidelines to firms/senior management, which can discourage the culture of knowledge hiding in firms.

This study contributes to knowledge management literature by revealing multi-level and multi-faceted antecedents of top-down knowledge hiding in buying and supplying firms in the supply chain context.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a standardized, psychometrically sound instrument for the emerging construct of change recipient proactivity (CRP), using a deductive approach.

Using a systematic item-development framework as a guide (i.e. item generation, questionnaire administration, item reduction and scale evaluation) and based on a sample of 414 white-collar employees, this paper discusses the development and validation of an instrument that can be used to measure change recipient’s proactive behavioral responses to planned change efforts.

Results suggest that our proposed CRP scale is internally consistent (reliable) and valid in that it is conceptually distinct from, yet empirically correlated with neighboring constructs such as affective commitment to change, readiness for change and proactive personality.

The findings illustrate that change recipients can demonstrate proactive behaviors in response to change efforts. However, this study’s contribution is only a first step, requiring further theoretical and methodological refinement of the scale in different contexts.

The deductive nature of our study resulted in a comprehensive and domain-specific scale assessing recipients’ proactive responses to organizational change efforts. This opens doors to empirical studies on examining the conditions under which change recipients “may” step outside the boundaries of passivity to respond positively and proactivity to organizational change efforts.

Readers will remember previous contributions by Mr. Tong in which he tells of some of the difficulties he encounters in his work with engines in remote overseas stations, and the practical ways in which he overcomes them.