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This paper aims to study the tribological characteristics of the electrical contact system under different displacement amplitudes.

First, the risk frequency of real nuclear safety distributed control system (DCS) equipment is evaluated. Subsequently, a reciprocating friction test device which is characterized by a ball-on-flat configuration is established, and a series of current-carrying tribological tests are carried out at this risk frequency.

At risk frequency and larger displacement amplitude, the friction coefficient visibly rises. The reliability of the electrical contact system declines as amplitude increases. The wear morphology analysis shows that the wear rate increases significantly and the degree of interface wear intensifies at a larger amplitude. The wear area occupied by the third body layer increases sharply, and the appearance of plateaus on the surface leads to the increase of friction coefficient and contact resistance. EDS analysis suggests that oxygen elements progressively arise in the third layer as a result of increased air exposure brought on by larger displacement amplitude.

Results are significant for recognizing the tribological properties of electrical connectors in nuclear power control systems.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-03-2024-0098/

This is the application of the Entropy and TOPSIS model to assess the eco-efficiency of European financial institutions using environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies. The aim is to categorize financial institutions based on key factors such as environmental training and management and to examine the alignment between ideal ESG performance and eco-efficiency.

The study uses environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies to identify and categorize eco-entrepreneurs in European financial institutions. The study utilizes data to examine the structure between environmental training, effective management practices, and the green performance of financial institutions.

The study shows that European financial institutions exhibit varying degrees of eco-efficiency as assessed using the Entropy and TOPSIS model applied to ESG strategies. Surprisingly, the study found that institutions with a high ESG performance do not always match those with the highest eco-efficiency.

They emphasize the need for financial institutions to align their operations with sustainable practices. This research provides insights to increase eco-efficiency and improve the ESG performance of financial institutions. It also informs policy and decision-making in these institutions in relation to environmental training and management practices, contributing to the wider dialogue on sustainable finance.

This indicates a discrepancy between ESG ratings and actual eco-efficiency, emphasizing the need to reassess the ESG framework. The study findings are crucial for aligning financial institutions with sustainable practices and improving the effectiveness of the ESG framework, especially for institutions at the lower end of the eco-efficiency spectrum.

This paper presents the biography of one of Australia’s earliest female accountants, Miss Evelyn Maude West (aka Eva). The paper uses this history sub-genre to understand the significant impacts Eva West made across several fields. Eva West was not only a pioneer woman accountant but also an active philanthropist with an interest in social issues and a nature lover who promoted and encouraged an appreciation of the environment.

The paper leverages a diverse array of qualitative resources, responding to Carnegie and Napier's (1996) call to expand the concept of the accounting-based archive. Notably, rare nature study diaries and a book detailing camping adventures serve as poignant examples, illustrating Eva West's profound social and environmental engagement. Additionally, personal and business letters, digitised newspapers, pamphlets, annual reports, minute books and even poems contribute to the comprehensive exploration of Eva West's life and impact. Collectively, these varied sources offer a rich tapestry of evidence, facilitating the documentation of this unique narrative.

Throughout her life, Eva West made significant contributions as a pioneering woman in the field of accounting, a dedicated philanthropist and a passionate environmentalist. Together, these offer a multifaceted portrait of a well-rounded individual. With a solid foundation in accounting, Eva utilized her expertise to benefit numerous charitable organisations, leaving a lasting impact on the community. Moreover, her deep love for the environment is illustrated in nature study diaries and books documenting her camping adventures, highlighting the interconnectedness between her accounting pursuits and her commitment to environmental stewardship.

While previous studies briefly mention the additional contributions of early women to various organisations and movements, none provide the depth of insight seen in the portrayal of Miss Eva West. Rather than critiquing these earlier narratives, this observation presents an opportunity for further research to honour pioneering individuals for their multifaceted roles beyond accounting. Future studies could spotlight trailblazers as accountants with diverse interests and societal contributions, whether in social or environmental spheres. Additionally, this paper demonstrates how archives maintained by individuals, such as nature or travel diaries and camping books, can enrich accounting and accountability-based historical research.

Biographical studies in accounting have played a significant role in advancing historical research, yet there remains a call for additional studies to gain deeper insights into specific individuals. Few biographical narratives have explored how accountants integrate their professional careers with other interests, particularly highlighting the well-roundedness of individuals, especially women. Furthermore, this paper contributes to filling the gap in research that examines the intersection of accounting professionals and environmental concerns.

Recent literature on high-performance work systems (HPWS) has questioned the universal success of HPWS and highlighted the need to examine contextual factors and micro-level employee experiences. To address this issue, this study aimed to explore the dynamics of HPWS implementation. Using the case of an Indian public-limited pharmaceutical company transitioning towards professionalisation, it examined the inconsistencies between the intended, enacted and perceived HPWS practices.

This study used a case study approach, drawing on multiple data sources, including surveys, interviews with various stakeholders, observations, documents and reports. Quantitative data was gathered through job satisfaction and organisational culture surveys completed by 888 employees. The qualitative interview data was analysed deductively, with themes derived from the existing HPWS literature.

The analysis revealed the organisation’s struggle in integrating professionally oriented HPWS practices within its promoter-driven bureaucratic culture. Employees reported a lack of autonomy, poor communication and inequitable opportunities for training and promotion. These cultural misalignments undermined the effectiveness of HPWS, leading to perceptions of exploitation, decreased job satisfaction and reduced trust in management. The findings highlight that HPWS practices cannot be implemented in parts without holistically considering the organisational context and culture.

The study offers practical guidance to organisations on implementing HPWS effectively. It emphasises the importance of continuously integrating employee feedback into HPWS practices to ensure sustainable performance improvements.

This study addresses a critical gap in HPWS literature by offering a post-implementation analysis focused on employee experiences within a traditional family firm. It highlights the systemic challenges that hinder the effectiveness of HPWS in practice.

This paper aims to outline an ethical framework for the deployment of facial recognition technology (FRT) in policing practice and highlight the ethical significance of the facial image.

This paper sets out an ethical approach to the practice of facial recognition deployment derived from Emmanuel Levinas’ Ethics of the Face. Ideas concerning alterity and the role of the face as a source of ethical obligation are used to establish the significance of responsibility and accountability in FRT usage.

Reflecting on the ethics of the face suggests that facial recognition amplifies requirements for accountability and responsibility in comparison with other biometric techniques and requires stronger legal safeguards.

This paper offers practical improvements through: improved process in applying FRT and changes to information management practice which treat the facial image with heightened accountability and traceability. Training is suggested which creates an understanding of the face and an improved approach to the information management of FRT data. Recommendations are made on selection of officers deployed in the field.

Using Levinas’ concept of the face and ethical philosophy provides a unique and novel lens for characterizing the legal and ethical issues concerning FRT in police practice and results in new insights as to the productive use of FRT in public policing.

The link between entrepreneurial intention and positive attitudes towards entrepreneurship for established and nascent entrepreneurs has been well documented in the extant literature, with the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) viewing entrepreneurial intention as a pre-requisite for entrepreneurial pursuit. Whilst scholars generally agree on these insights, little empirical evidence exists on how marginalised social groups can convert their intentions into action. This study aims to understand to what extent the elements of TPB, the attitudes towards entrepreneurship, self-efficacy and subjective norms, help explain the emergence of entrepreneurial activity amongst marginalised demographic groups.

This research focuses on unemployed women residing in social housing located in a deprived urban area of the United Kingdom to empirically examine how multiple layers of disadvantage faced by this group shape their motivations and intentions for entrepreneurial pursuit. A multi-source qualitative methodology was adopted, drawing upon inductive storytelling narratives and extensive fieldwork on a sample of unemployed ethnic minority women residing in social housing in a deprived urban area of the United Kingdom. Community organisation representatives and housing association employees within the social housing system were included to assess the interpretive capacity of TPB.

The findings display that TPB illuminates why and how marginalised groups engage in entrepreneurship. Critically, women’s entrepreneurial intentions emerge as a result of their experiences of multiple layers of disadvantage, their positionality and the specificity of few resources they can activate from their disadvantageous position for entrepreneurial activity.

By illuminating the linkages between marginalised women’s positionality and their associated access to the limited pool of resources using the TPB lens, this study contributes to emerging works on disadvantaged populations and entrepreneurial intention-action debate. This work posits that despite facing significant additional challenges through their positionality and reduced ability to mobilise resources, women in social housing can defy the odds and develop ways to overcome limited capacity and structural disadvantage.

This study aims to investigate the opacity of bank assets because of the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 9 implementation. It highlights that the Asian-Pacific countries’ banking industries are experiencing economic volatility. In other words, it examines information asymmetries because of the standards requiring a mechanistic treatment. Thus, this focuses on the tragedy of the commons (ToTC) caused by the implementation of the standard.

This research selects a sample of banking firms in the Asia-Pacific region from 2010 to 2021. Furthermore, it examines the impacts of IFRS 9’s implementation on earnings forecasts and share-return conveyances. This research first uses the OLS regression for examining the bank assets’ opacities, which may affect future earnings and information conveyancing. Second, it arranges these opacities, earnings and stock returns with the 2-SLS regression to find the staging associations because of hierarchical relevances.

This study finds that bank assets’ opacity is caused by a standard’s implementation, which is a ToTC, and this study signifies its first occurrence. Simultaneously, it recognises an information asymmetry because of the implemented procedural calculation mandated by the standard. Furthermore, these opacities affect future earnings and information conveyancing that inherited information asymmetries, which have affected them as the second ToTC. Finally, current and future earnings as a consequent impact of asset opacity are recursively associated with stock return conveyancing as the third ToTC.

This study demonstrates hierarchical information about bank asset opacities, starting by recognising and measuring them in financial statements. Then, these recognised and measured asset opacities are associated with current and future earnings, ending on the ordinarily and staged influencing of stock return conveyancing. Moreover, it reveals hierarchical information in the direct-ordinarily and staged associations among bank asset opacities, earnings and return conveyances. Thus, these associations are valid and occur because of the mandates of the standard’s measurement.

This study examines the need for an accounting curriculum to evolve in response to the changing business landscape. Specifically, this study aims to explore the relationship between various market forces, the shifting dynamics of business, and the importance of adapting accounting education to these changes.

This study is a combination of both quantitative and qualitative research. A structured questionnaire was administered to 320 professionals to gather data, and the study employed descriptive analysis, one-sample t-tests, and structured equation modeling to analyze the relationship between the variables.

The findings reveal a strong correlation between business transformation and the imperative to adapt accounting education. This study emphasizes the significance of modifying accounting curricula to align with the current market trends. Furthermore, this study addresses the pressing concern of sustainability and the triple bottom line (TBL), advocating specialized education in sustainability accounting programs.

Despite its contributions, this study acknowledges a limitation in its focus solely on the perceptions of professionals and academicians regarding the impact of business transformation on accounting education, without directly examining the prevailing accounting education system. Future research should address this limitation by undertaking a qualitative exploration of the actual accounting education landscape and market requirements.

The implications of the study span the theoretical, regulatory, environmental, and social domains, stressing the need for educational institutions, regulatory bodies, and industry to collaborate in shaping competent and future-ready accounting professionals. A systematic approach would validate and extend the findings of this study, providing deeper insights into the transformative processes necessary to enhance accounting education in response to evolving business landscapes and environmental dynamics.

The outcome of the study assists educational institutions and regulatory bodies in framing policies to adapt accounting education to the evolving business landscape by updating the accounting curriculum as per the changes in the market forces to make graduates relevant and competent.

The objective of this research is to methodically categorize the various types of Open Government Data (OGD) stakeholders, and to elucidate the intricate network relationships among OGD stakeholders, along with the underlying mechanisms that shape their formation.

To comprehend the collaboration mechanism of stakeholders in the OGD ecosystem, the authors constructed an OGD multi-stakeholder relationship network by using data from the Shandong Province Data Application Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. Based on the structural social capital theory and exponential random graph model (ERGM), an analytical framework was established to explore the formation mechanism of the collaborative network of OGD multi-stakeholder.

The results indicate that multi-stakeholder collaboration among government, enterprises and the public is crucial for achieving OGD goals. Organizing OGD competitions serves as an effective mechanism for solidifying and maintaining relationships among OGD stakeholder groups. Degree centrality and structural parameters reveal a Matthew effect within the connection process of the OGD ecosystem's collaborative network. Additionally, there is evidence of agglomeration and transferability within the network's structure.

This study contributes to the understanding regarding the formation mechanism of OGD stakeholders. The findings have implications for developing multi-stakeholder relationship networks of OGD and driving OGD initiatives.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-06-2023-0284

This research aims to examine the US–China policy shift from Obama to Biden emphasizing the centrality of Taiwan question in the geostrategic competition with Beijing and its prospect if the US strategy remains unchanged.

A conceptual framework is outlined, illustrating how the US grand strategy is driven by the ideological foundation of Exceptionalism. The paper highlights the associated US policy changes that evolved from Obama to Trump and then Biden to advance Washington's strategic interests in its rivalry with China over Taiwan.

Biden's policy led to an escalating geopolitical competition with Beijing over Taiwan to maintain US supremacy. The Biden administration is more stringent than the previous administrations on the Taiwan question and there is the conviction that the USA must not back down on Taiwan because the alternative will be a retraction of US world primacy to Beijing. With Washington's persistent hegemonic strategy, the US–China confrontation over Taiwan seems inevitable.

The research highlights how the Biden administration managed a perpetuated Ukraine crisis and forged unprecedented high-level ties with Taiwan, indicating the administration's determination to exacerbate contentions with Beijing over Taiwan rather than de-escalate.