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As live streaming becomes a widely used online sales mode, previously content-centred anchors are attempting to switch to e-commerce live streaming. The purpose of this research was to explore the mechanisms that prompt consumers to stay or leave after content anchors transfer to live e-commerce broadcasts. In addition, we explored the factors affecting consumption from the perspectives of anchors, consumers and the external environment.

We distributed questionnaires to a group of fans who had experienced the transition of content anchors to live streaming and received back 375 valid questionnaires. Using psychological contract theory, we constructed a theoretical model for the scenario in which content anchors transition to live e-commerce broadcasting and analysed the data using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

The results show that circle culture, mainstream culture, initial trust and live streaming content all positively influenced consumers’ attitudes, whilst consumers’ past shopping experiences negatively influenced consumers’ attitudes. The personal charm of the content anchors did not have a significant effect on consumers’ attitudes. Additionally, we found that only anchors with a significant circle culture and good trust levels amongst fans were able to transition to live e-commerce streaming successfully.

This study extends the application of psychological contract theory to the field of e-commerce and describes the transformation of different types of psychological contracts. The paper’s conclusions provide a reference for decision-making and the implementation of transformation by content-based anchors to live streaming, helping them to coordinate their relationships with fans more effectively.

The current study aims to identify work-related use of information and communication technologies after-hours (W_ICTs) from passive and active perspectives and examine mechanisms and different effects of information and communication technologies on employee innovation behavior.

Experience sampling method (ESM) was employed to capture dynamic within-person variance in daily-behaviors and daily-mood. In total, 92 employees completed an identical online survey each day for ten workdays.

The findings showed that the influence patterns and mechanisms of passive and active W_ICTs were utterly different. Passive W_ICTs was negatively associated with employee innovation behavior via emotional exhaustion, while active W_ICTs was positively associated with employee innovation behavior through perceived insider status. Furthermore, differential leadership significantly narrowed the positive relationship between passive W_ICTs and emotional exhaustion. However, differential leadership did not significantly moderate the relationship between active W_ICTs and perceived insider status.

This study is an important step forward in dividing W_ICTs into passive and active W_ICTs and discovers a dual path of two types of W_ICTs on employee innovation behavior. Findings of this study have heuristic value for future research.

This study aims to investigate whether auditors compromise their independence for economically important clients in family business settings.

The authors empirically examine the research question based on China for the years 2011 to 2020. The dependent variable is the auditors’ propensity to issue modified audit opinions, which is a proxy for auditor independence. The authors use relative client audit fees as a proxy for client importance. To address endogeneity issues in the selection of family firms, the authors use the two-stage least squares regression model and, subsequently, the propensity score matching and Hausman firm fixed effect modeling.

This study reveals that the propensity to issue modified audit opinions is positively correlated with client importance. Big-N auditors are more likely to issue modified audit opinions for their economically important family firm clients, whereas such evidence is not found for non-Big-N auditors. Results are consistent and robust to endogeneity test and sensitivity analysis.

This study enriches the literature on auditor independence and the effect of family firms’ ownership structure factors on audit reporting behavior for their economically important clients. Findings may prove useful for managers and practitioners interested in family business.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate three types of textures designed to enhance the tribological performance of static and dynamic pressure thrust bearings.

To explore the effects of different types of textures on tribological performance, the Reynolds equation is modified using lubrication theory and computational fluid dynamics methods while considering the influence of cavitation and turbulence on the physical field. In addition, the tribological performance is optimized through an improved selection algorithm based on Pareto envelope (PESA).

The results indicate that textured thrust bearings exhibit superior tribological performance compared to untextured ones. The circular texture outperforms other textures in terms of load-bearing and friction performance, with improvements of approximately 28.8% and 18.9%, respectively. In addition, the triangular texture exhibits the most significant temperature improvement, with a reduction of approximately 1.93%.

The study proposes three types of textures and evaluates the friction performance of thrust bearings by modifying the Reynolds equation. In addition, the optimal texture design is determined using an improved selection algorithm based on PESA.

The study specifically focused on ethical leadership and help seeking during innovation and tested the moderating effect of happiness on the path from help seeking to innovation.

In this longitudinal study, 472 employees from an HR outsourcing company in China participated in the first survey. However, only 184 employees completed two surveys (1 month apart). We used path analysis to test all hypotheses through Mplus.

We found that ethical leadership, through help-seeking, is correlated to innovation. We also found that one’s happiness level is related to innovation, and when employees are chronically happy, the positive effect of help-seeking on innovation is stronger.

Working in an ethical environment, employees are comfortable acknowledging mistakes, hearing feedback and making corrections, which fosters continuous innovation. Conversely, without the influence from ethical leaders, employees may choose to remain silent and abandon continuous innovation due to the concern of losing “face” the context of China.

The purpose of this study is to provide ideas and theoretical guidance for green, environmentally friendly and efficient “bacteriostasis with bacteria” technology.

In this paper, a beneficial strain of bacteria was extracted and purified from marine mud. Weight-loss test, morphological observation and electrochemical test were used to systematically study the effect of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB)-induced corrosion inhibition on X65 steel in simulated offshore oil field production water.

The results showed that a beneficial strain was selected and identified as Vibrio alginolyticus. Under the condition of co-culture of SRB, the average corrosion rate of X65 steel was significantly reduced. In the mixed bacterial system, the surface of X65 steel samples was relatively flat, and the structure of biofilm and corrosion product film was dense. The number of corrosion pits, the average diameter and depth of corrosion pits were significantly reduced. The localized corrosion of X65 steel was significantly inhibited.

The complex and changing marine environment makes the corrosion problem of marine steel increasingly severe, and the microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) caused by SRB is particularly serious. The research and development of environmentally friendly corrosion protection technology is a long-term and difficult problem. The use of beneficial microorganisms to control MIC is a green and efficient anticorrosion measure. Compared with terrestrial microorganisms, marine microorganisms can adapt to complex environments, and their metabolites exhibit special biological activities. The use of marine beneficial bacteria can inhibit SRB activity to achieve the corrosion inhibition effect.

This paper aims to study the effect of the establishment of bankruptcy courts on bond issuance market. This paper helps to predict that the introduction of bankruptcy courts in China can mitigate price distortions caused by the implicit government guarantees and promote the development of the high-risk bond market.

This paper exploits the staggered introduction of bankruptcy courts across cities to implement a differences-in-differences strategy on bond issuance data. Using bonds issued in China between 2018 and 2020, the impact of bankruptcy courts on the bond issuance market can be analyzed.

This paper reveals that bond issuance credit spreads increase and is more sensitive to firm size, profitability and downside risk of issuance entity after the introduction of bankruptcy courts. It also reveals a substantive increase in bond issuance quantity and a decrease in issuer credit ratings following the establishment of bankruptcy courts. In addition, the increase of credit spreads is more prominent for publicly traded bonds, those whose issuers located in provinces with lower judicial confidence, bonds issued by SOEs and bonds with stronger government guarantees. Finally, the role of bankruptcy courts is more pronounced in regions with higher marketization.

This paper relates to previous studies that investigate the impact of laws and institutions on external financing. It helps provide new evidence to this literature on how improvements of efficiency and quality in bankruptcy enforcements relate to the marketization of bond issuance. The results provide further evidence on legal institutions and bond financing.

The purpose of this integrative literature review was three-fold: to explore the phenomenon of women’s career interruptions as revealed by publications in the past two decades, to propose a new career decision tree model (CDTM) and to outline an agenda for future research.

The authors adopted the integrative literature review approach proposed by Torraco (2005, 2016) and used a mind mapping application called MindMeister to synthesize 64 identified articles.

The proposed CDTM can assist those who are interested in exploring individuals’ career decisions to think systematically about career influencers at different levels.

The CDTM is significantly different from existing career models and theories in that it explains women’s career interruptions in a context-sensitive manner. This model can assist human resource development professionals in analyzing the influencers of women’s career decisions and tackling individual problems level by level.

The reported Kullback–Leibler (K–L) distance-based generalized grey target decision method (GGTDM) for mixed attributes is an asymmetric decision-making basis (DMB) that does not have the symmetric characteristic of distance in common sense, which may affect the decision-making result. To overcome the deficiency of the asymmetric K–L distance, the symmetric K–L distance is investigated to act as the DMB of GGTDM for mixed attributes.

The decision-making steps of the proposed approach are as follows: First, all mixed attribute values are transformed into binary connection numbers, and the target centre indices of all attributes are determined. Second, all the binary connection numbers (including the target centre indices) are divided into deterministic and uncertain terms and converted into two-tuple (determinacy and uncertainty) numbers. Third, the comprehensive weighted symmetric K–L distance can be computed, as can the alternative index of normalized two-tuple (deterministic degree and uncertainty degree) number and that of the target centre. Finally, the decision-making is made by the comprehensive weighted symmetric K–L distance according to the rule that the smaller the value, the better the alternative.

The case study verifies the proposed approach with its sufficient theoretical basis for decision-making and reflects the preferences of decision-makers to address the uncertainty of an uncertain number.

This work compares the single-direction-based K–L distance to the symmetric one and uses the symmetric K–L distance as the DMB of GGTDM. At the same time, different coefficients are assigned to an uncertain number’s deterministic term and uncertain term in the calculation process, as this reflects the preference of the decision-maker.

Building on social exchange theory and selection, optimization and compensation theory, this study aims to examine a moderated curvilinear relationship between servant leadership (SL) and work-family conflict (WFC).

Participants were 329 female workers recruited from a Chinese small business in the service Industry. A three-step hierarchical regression was conducted to examine the relationships among the variables and the incremental contribution of SL and age and the squared term of SL.

Study results confirmed a curvilinear relationship between SL and WFC and the moderating effect of age. When younger female employees perceived a moderate range of SL from their supervisors, they reported higher WFC compared to the low or high level of perceived SL. On the contrary, senior female employees reported a lower level of WFC when they perceived a moderate level of SL than when they perceived very low or high levels.

SL research has experienced a period of exponential growth in the past decade. This study advanced the field of leadership by arguing that SL perceived by female employees is curvilinearly related to WFC and the curvilinear relationship is moderated by age.