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This paper aims to examine whether labour unions influence labour conflicts and this mechanism is different in China compared with other countries.

This paper uses the data from the China Employer–Employee Survey that interviewed 1,208 firms and 10,087 workers in 2016 as the measurement of variables, and it uses Logit regression model to do the empirical research.

Unions cannot significantly influence labour conflicts. More active unions and unions whose leaders are appointed by the firms’ management are associated with a higher incidence of labour conflicts.

This paper finds a new mechanism that explains the relationship between unions and labour conflicts. The existing literature states that unions may increase labour conflicts via “monopoly power” and may also mitigate labour conflicts via “voice mechanisms”. This paper’s findings show that the positive correlation between unions and labour conflicts may be explained by the lack of “voice mechanism” rather than “monopoly power”. The findings imply that labour unions should represent the interest of workers to mitigate the increasing labour conflicts.

The purpose of this paper is to review the fundamental methodology and its development of intelligent disassembly planning research.

Following a brief introduction, this paper first discusses the fundamental problems associated with disassembly planning and analysis. And then considers the role of intelligent optimization methods in the disassembly planning field. This is followed by a summary and conclusion.

Many advances have been made in computerized intelligent disassembly planning research, which is a natural evolutionary result of both traditional solving methodology and much research effort over past two decades. But as yet, some fundamental limitations are also rooted in this computational model‐based methodology.

The paper provides a fundamental review on the development of computerized intelligent disassembly planning research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of social capital on organizational ambidexterity in the context of emerging economies. Moreover, this paper aims to study the moderating influence of absorptive capacity on the relationship between social capital and organizational ambidexterity.

The authors conducted two studies using survey data collected from 97 Ecuadorian and 100 Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The authors found that social capital, the extent to which organizational members interact, collaborate and share knowledge with one another and with external actors, has a positive effect on the simultaneous implementation of exploratory and exploitative innovations (i.e. organizational ambidexterity). Moreover, the authors found that absorptive capacity positively strengthens the impact of social capital on organizational ambidexterity.

Drawing on the knowledge-based view and the innovation literature, the authors theoretically argue the importance of social capital and absorptive capacity for SMEs to develop and manage exploratory and exploitative innovations simultaneously in emerging economies of different cultures. The authors empirically test proposed hypotheses in Ecuador and China, two emerging markets with important cultural differences, and show the relevance of social capital in multiple settings.

This study aims to assess the pitting resistance of austenitic stainless steel welded joints fusion zone (FZ) with high density of inclusions before and after surface treatment, including potentiostatic pulse technique (PPT) and pickling.

The potentiodynamic polarization tests and critical pitting temperature tests were carried out for estimating pitting resistance. The PPT and pickling were performed as surface treatment. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive spectrometer were used for characterize the microstructure and elemental distribution. Electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD) was used to assess the portion of phases and morphology of grains.

The weld metal exhibits a higher degree of alloying compared to the base metal, and it contains d-phase and sulfur-containing inclusions. Sulfur-containing inclusions serve as initiation sites for pitting, and they diminish the pitting resistance of weld metal. Both PPT and pickling can remove sulfur-containing inclusions, but PPT causes localized dissolution of the weld metal matrix around the inclusions, while pickling does not. Because of the high density of inclusions, certain pits initiated by PPT are significantly deeper, which makes the formation of stable pitting easier. Because of the high density of inclusions, certain pits initiated by the PPT are deeper. This characteristic facilitates the progression of these initial defects into fully developed, stable pits.

Analysis of pitting initiation in shielded metal arc welding FZ with PPT and ex situ SEM tracking observation. Explanation of why the PPT surface treatment is not able to enhance the pitting resistance of stainless steel with a high inclusion density.

This study aims to use geographical information on social media for public opinion risk identification during a crisis.

This study constructs a double-layer network that associates the online public opinion with geographical information. In the double-layer network, Gaussian process regression is used to train the prediction model for geographical locations. Second, cross-space information flow is described using local government data availability and regional internet development indicators. Finally, the structural characteristics and information flow of the double-layer network are explored to capture public opinion risks in a fine-grained manner. This study used the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak for validation analyses, and it collected more than 90,000 pieces of public opinion data from microblogs.

In the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak, the double-layer network exhibited a radiating state, and the information dissemination was more dependent on the nodes with higher in-degree. Moreover, the double-layer network structure showed geographical differences. The risk contagion was more significant in areas where information flow was prominent, but the influence of nodes was reduced.

Public opinion risk identification that incorporates geographical scenarios contributes to enhanced situational awareness. This study not only effectively extends geographical information on social media, but also provides valuable insights for accurately responding to public opinion.

Drawing from moral exclusion theory, this study aims to examine a moderated mediation model for the relationship between perceived overqualification (POQ) and knowledge-hiding behavior directly and via perceived dissimilarity.

Using the convenience-sampling technique, time-lagged (three waves) data were gathered from 595 employees working in different hotels and event management firms. Hayes’ PROCESS macro was used to test the moderated mediation model.

Results showed that perceived dissimilarity among coworkers mediated the result of POQ on knowledge-hiding behavior. In addition, interpersonal disliking moderated the indirect effect in a way that this effect was strong when interpersonal liking was low.

Findings suggest that organizations should make the overqualified realize that they can also learn from their coworkers whom they perceive as less qualified. In this, the feelings of dissimilarity and disliking can be minimized that in turn may decrease the intention to hide knowledge.

The present study offers a new perspective for identifying the nexus between POQ and knowledge-hiding behavior by drawing upon moral exclusion theory and examining the mediating role of perceived deep-level dissimilarity.

In order to analyze the level of independent controllability and its evolution of high-end equipment manufacturing industry from Jiangsu Province, this article introduces the dual-excitation control line method to construct a comprehensive evaluation model for independent controllability.

Through the collection of information of high-end equipment manufacturing industry's independent and controllable capabilities on different indicators, the three aspects of advancement, autonomy and controllability, an empirical evaluation of 10 enterprises in the high-end equipment cluster in Jiangsu Province was conducted in terms of advancement, autonomy and controllability.

It effectively reveals the area and evolution characteristics of the “reward” and “punishment” of different indicators of each representative enterprise and reflects the development status and different characteristics of each representative enterprise on the three indicators. The research results provide decision-making guidance for enterprises in the management and control of advanced manufacturing systems with independent and controllable capabilities.

Existing research focuses on the evaluation of enterprises' independent controllability only on a single angle or index. This paper maps the dynamic evaluation problem of multiple time-point data to the evaluation problem of single time-point multi-index data and investigates the fluctuation of the performance of the same enterprise under different indexes, so as to comprehensively evaluate the independent controllable level of high-end equipment manufacturing industry and analyze the reasons. Further, this paper first establishes an evaluation index system of independent controllable level of high-end equipment manufacturing industry and quantitatively measures the advanced, independent, controllable and other aspects of typical enterprises in this industry by constructing a double incentive control line evaluation model.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the difference of credit enhancement of variously secured bonds issued by local government financing platform bond (LGFPB).

The approaches to secure the bonds usually include mortgage, collateral, guarantee, etc.

Using a sample of LGFPBs issued during the 2007-2013 period, the authors find that all of the approaches to secure the bonds would increase the bond rating and that compounded approaches have a higher credit enhancement effect than single approaches. Among these approaches, the requirement of collateral has the strongest enhancement effect. Moreover, the authors find that the guarantee provided by a state-owned bank or enterprise increases the bond rating more than the guarantee provided by other local government financing platforms.

The findings in this study suggest that the credit enhancement would be deeply affected by the approach used to secure the bond.

These results can help the local government make better decisions when issuing bond.

This study empirically analyzes the different credit enhancement approaches for securing LGPFBs for the first time and contributes to the literature regarding credit ratings of local government bonds.

Against the background of the enormous economic transition China is undertaking, government intervention over corporate behavior is a frequent and, arguably, necessary measure. Among the most serious problems facing China, economically and reputationally, are environmental issues. So, how is the government intervening in the environmental performance of Chinese enterprises? And how are Chinese enterprises responding? These are the questions to be answered in this study.

This paper sampled listed companies on China’s Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges. The data were collected from the HeXun corporate social responsibility report, CSMAR and WIND databases. A Tobit model was used to conduct the main 2SLS regression analysis, and the robustness tests followed the propensity score matching method.

The analysis shows that environmental performance is positively related to the government subsidies a company receives. The “Eight-point Regulation of the Centre” crack-down on social corruption introduced in 2012 has weakened rent-seeking overall, but rent-seeking behavior through the cloak of corporate environmental performance has become more serious. As a result, non-polluting and state-owned enterprises are significantly less concerned about their environmental performance, while polluting and private enterprises are more motivated to become good environmental citizens.

This research provides a greater understanding of the drivers behind environmentally-responsible behavior in Chinese companies. These insights can be used by policymakers and environmental regulators to incentivize a more widespread ground-swell of change across the gamut of Chinese business.

Environmental policy and practice informed by research-driven recommendations can not only make valuable contributions to the health and well-being of Chinese society but also, as a significant contributor to climate change, environmental reforms have global benefits.

This study explores the motivations behind rent-seeking associated with environmental investment. The findings expand the research horizon of relevant literature on corporate political rent-seeking and deepen the understandings of the economic consequences of corporate investment into environmental practice. The results provide empirical evidence for the Chinese government to implement environmental regulations based on incentives beyond simple profit-making.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate three categories of four-degrees of freedom (4-DOFs) upper limb rehabilitation exoskeleton mechanisms from the perspective of relative movement offsets between the upper limb and the exoskeleton, so as to provide reference for the selection of exoskeleton mechanism configurations.

According to the configuration synthesis and optimum principles of 4-DOFs upper limb exoskeleton mechanisms, three categories of exoskeletons compatible with upper limb were proposed. From the perspective of human exoskeleton closed chain, through reasonable decomposition and kinematic characteristics analysis of passive connective joints, the kinematic equations of three categories exoskeletons were established and inverse position solution method were addressed. Subsequently, three indexes, which can represent the relative movement offsets of human–exoskeleton were defined.

Based on the presented position solution and evaluation indexes, the joint displacements and relative movement offsets of the three exoskeletons during eating movement were compared, on which the kinematic characteristics were investigated. The results indicated that the second category of exoskeleton was more suitable for upper limb rehabilitation than the other two categories.

This paper has a certain reference value for the selection of the 4-DOFs upper extremity rehabilitation exoskeleton mechanism configurations. The selected exoskeleton can ensure the safety and comfort of stroke patients with upper limb dyskinesia during rehabilitation training.