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The purpose of this paper is to form propositions about the relationship between top management team (TMT) heterogeneity and peer effects in investment decision-making and explore the mediating role of social learning processes.

To investigate the correlations between TMT heterogeneity and investment peer effects, we considered the TMT heterogeneity category, team process and contextual factors. With a sample of 8,467 firm-year observations from Chinese listed companies, we used the mean linear model and instrumental variable method to empirically examine their relationships. To identify the mediating role of social learning processes, we introduced a social learning model to find out the contextual factors influencing corporate social learning demands from three aspects and subsequently used comparative statics analysis to explore the variations in the main effect under these contextual factors.

For task-oriented heterogeneity (e.g. functional background, education and tenure heterogeneity), the opposite effects of information elaboration and social categorization processes make it a nonlinear multiplex correlation with investment peer effects. For relation-oriented heterogeneity (e.g. age and gender heterogeneity), the sole effect of social categorization processes leads to a negative linear correlation. Further, we identify the mediating role of social learning processes. In summary, we established a connection from the TMT heterogeneity, to information elaboration theory or social categorization theory, to social learning processes and ultimately to investment peer effects.

The results of this study provide a comprehensive perspective to predict the decision-making outcomes of team heterogeneity and contribute to heterogeneity research and practice.

This study aims to investigate the factors influencing the social responsibility performance of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) megaprojects. Specifically, it examines the role of isomorphic pressures and the joint influence of perceived benefits and top management support on megaproject social responsibility performance (MSRP).

Drawing from institutional theory, social exchange theory, and top management literature, this study established a conceptual model featuring eleven hypotheses. Subsequently, a questionnaire survey was administered to collect data from 238 actively engaged participants in BRI megaprojects. Structural Equation Modelling was utilised to analyse the data.

The empirical findings indicate that mimetic and coercive pressures positively influence MSRP. Perceived benefits and top management support significantly enhance MSRP. Moreover, perceived benefits and top management support partially mediate the effects of coercive and mimetic pressures. However, when it comes to normative pressures, their impact on MSRP is solely channelled through the support of top management.

This study is one of the early endeavours to explore the factors influencing the social responsibility performance of BRI megaprojects. It sheds light on the interplay between external pressures and internal factors in shaping social responsibility efforts in these projects. These findings are of particular significance for BRI actors and stakeholders, offering guidance for enhancing social responsibility strategies within the context of BRI megaprojects.

From the perspective of local government tax administration, the impact of geographic dispersion on the corporate tax burden is investigated in this paper.

Using unbalanced panel data with a sample of listed companies from 2003 to 2020 in China, this paper focuses on the effect of geographic dispersion on corporate tax burden and the mechanisms.

It is found that corporate tax burden is positively related to geographic dispersion. It is also found that geographic dispersion affects the corporate tax burden by increasing the effort of local government tax administration. In addition, the relation between geographic dispersion and corporate tax burden is more pronounced for local SOEs prior to the implementation of Golden Tax Project III and in cases where local governments face stronger financial pressure to obtain revenue.

This study has important implications for the promotion of the coordinated development of the regional economy, as well as the legalization, modernization and informatization of tax administration.

The study aims to examine the impact of cultural dependency stemming from exchange rate fluctuations (specifically the US dollar) on herding behavior in the housing market across 31 provinces of Iran from Q2 2011 to Q1 2022, using a spatial econometrics approach. After confirming the presence of spatial effects, the Dynamic Spatial Durbin Panel Model with Generalized Common Effects (SDM-DPD(GCE)) was selected from various spatial models for these provinces.

The study examines the impact of cultural dependency stemming from exchange rate fluctuations (specifically the US dollar) on herding behavior in the housing market across 31 provinces of Iran from Q2 2011 to Q1 2022, using a spatial econometrics approach. After confirming the presence of spatial effects, the Dynamic Spatial Durbin Panel Model with Generalized Common Effects (SDM-DPD(GCE)) was selected from various spatial models for these provinces.

The model estimation results indicate that fluctuations in the free market exchange rate of the dollar significantly and positively impact the housing market in both target and neighboring regions, fostering herding behavior characterized by cultural dependency within the specified timeframe. Additionally, the study found that variables such as the inflation rate, population density index and the logarithm of stock market trading volume have significant and positive impacts on the housing market. Conversely, the variable representing the logarithm of the distance from the provincial capital, Tehran, significantly and negatively impacts the housing market across Iranian provinces.

Given that housing is a fundamental need for households, the dramatic price increases in this sector (for instance, a more than 42-fold increase from 2011–2021) have significantly impacted the welfare of Iranian families. Currently, considering the average housing price in Tehran is around 50 million Tomans, and the average income of worker and employee groups is 8 million Tomans (as of 2021), the time required to purchase a 100-square-meter house, even with a 30% savings rate and stable housing prices, is approximately 180 years. Moreover, the share of housing and rent expenses in household budgets now constitutes about 70%. The speculative behavior in this market is so acute that, despite 25 million of Iran’s 87 million population being homeless or renting, over 2.5 million vacant homes (12% of the total housing stock) are not used. Therefore, various financial behaviors and decisions affect Iran’s housing market. Herd behavior is triggered by the signal of national currency devaluation (with currency exchange rates increasing more than 26-fold between 2011 and 2021) and transactions at higher prices in certain areas (particularly in northern Tehran) (Statistical Center of Iran, 2023). Given the origins of housing price surges, a price increase in one area quickly spreads to other regions, resulting in herd behavior in those areas (spillover effect). Consequently, housing market spikes in Iran tend to follow episodes of currency devaluation. Therefore, considering the presented discussions, one might question whether factors other than economic ones (such as herd behavior influenced by dependence culture) play a role in the rising housing prices. Or, if behavioral factors were indeed contributing to the increase in housing prices, what could be the cause of this herd movement? Has the exchange rate, particularly fluctuations in the free market dollar rate, triggered herd behavior in the housing market across Iran’s provinces? Or has the proximity and neighborhood effect been influential in the increase or decrease in housing prices in the market?

The research attempts to estimate how the use of WeChat, the most popular mobile social networking application in contemporary China, affects rural household income.

Our materials are 4,552 rural samples from the Chinese General Social Survey, and a treatment effect (TE) model is employed to address the endogeneity of WeChat usage.

The results prove that WeChat usage has a statistically significant and positive correlation with rural household income. This conclusion remains robust after using alternative variables to replace the explanatory and dependent variables. Our research provides two channels through which WeChat usage boosts rural household income, namely, it can promote their off-farm employment and participation in investment activities.

Theoretically, the study provides several micro-evidences for understanding the impact of mobile social networks on rural household welfare. Further, our findings may shed light on the importance of digital technology applications in rural poverty alleviation for developing countries.

This study aims to construct alternative models to establish the dynamic relationship between exchange rates and housing affordability by estimating both the short- and long-run relationship between exchange rates and housing affordability for 18 OECD countries from 1975Q1 to 2022Q4. After that, this study demonstrates how this nexus behaves during high and low inflation regimes and turbulent times.

This study uses the panel autoregressive distributed lag technique to examine the nexus between housing affordability to capture the distinct characteristics of the sample countries and estimate various short- and long-run dynamics in the relationship between housing affordability and exchange rate.

Exchange rate appreciation improves housing affordability in the short run, whereas this connection tends to dissipate in the long run. Moreover, inflation can worsen housing affordability during turbulent times, such as the global financial crisis, in both the short and long run. Ignoring these changes in the relationship between exchange rates and housing affordability during turbulent times can lead to incorrect conclusions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the association between exchange rates and housing affordability by demonstrating how these variables behave in high and low inflation regimes and turbulent times.

Prefabricated buildings (PBs) have proven to effectively mitigate carbon emissions in the construction industry. Existing studies have analyzed the environmental performance of PBs considering the shift in construction methods, ignoring the emissions abatement effects of the low-carbon practices adopted by participants in the prefabricated building supply chain (PBSC). Thus, it is challenging to exploit the environmental advantages of PBs. To further reveal the carbon reduction potential of PBs and assist participants in making low-carbon practice strategy decisions, this paper constructs a system dynamics (SD) model to explore the performance of PBSC in low-carbon practices.

This study adopts the SD approach to integrate the complex dynamic relationship between variables and explicitly considers the environmental and economic impacts of PBSC to explore the carbon emission reduction effects of low-carbon practices by enterprises under environmental policies from the supply chain perspective.

Results show that with the advance of prefabrication level, the carbon emissions from production and transportation processes increase, and the total carbon emissions of PBSC show an upward trend. Low-carbon practices of rational transportation route planning and carbon-reduction energy investment can effectively reduce carbon emissions with negative economic impacts on transportation enterprises. The application of sustainable materials in low-carbon practices is both economically and environmentally friendly. In addition, carbon tax does not always promote the implementation of low-carbon practices, and the improvement of enterprises' environmental awareness can further strengthen the effect of low-carbon practices.

This study dynamically assesses the carbon reduction effects of low-carbon practices in PBSC, informing the low-carbon decision-making of participants in building construction projects and guiding the government to formulate environmental policies.

Financial market sustainability is gaining attention as investors and stakeholders become more aware of environmental, social and governance issues, pushing demand for responsible and ethical investment practices. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of carbon (CO2) emissions from three sources, oil, gas and coal, on the stock market sustainability via effective government policies.

The eight countries belong to two different regions of world: Asian economies such as Pakistan, India, Malaysia and China, and OECD economies such as Germany, France, the UK and the USA are selected as a sample of the study. The 22-year data from 2000 to 2022 are collected from the DataStream and the World Bank data portal for the specified countries. The generalized methods of movement (GMM) and wavelet are used as the econometric tool for the analysis.

Our findings show that the CO2 emission from coal and gas significantly negatively impacts stock market sustainability, but CO2 emission from oil positively impacts stock market sustainability. Moreover, all the emerging Asian economies’ CO2 emissions from coal and gas have a much greater significant negative impact on the stock market sustainability than the OECD countries due to the critical situation. However, the government’s effective policies have a positive significant moderating impact between them, reducing the effect of CO2 emission on the stock market.

This study advocated strong implications for policymakers, governments and investors.

Effective government policies can protect the environment and make business operations suitable, leading to market financial stability. This study advocated strong implications for policymakers, governments and investors.

This study provides fresh evidence of the government’s effective role to control the carbon environment that provide the sustainability to the organizations with respect to OECD and emerging economy.

The combination of improved PSO (IPSO) algorithm and artificial neural network (ANN) model for intelligent monitoring of the bearing performance of the hydrostatic turntable.

This paper proposes an artificial neural network model based on IPSO algorithm for intelligent monitoring of hydrostatic turntables.

The theoretical model proposed in this paper improves the accuracy of the working performance of the static pressure turntable and provides a new direction for intelligent monitoring of the static pressure turntable. Therefore, the theoretical research in this paper is novel.

Theoretical novelties: an ANN model based on the IPSO algorithm is designed to monitor the load-bearing performance of a static pressure turntable intelligently; this study show that the convergence accuracy and convergence speed of the IPSO-NN model have been improved by 52.55% and 10%, respectively, compared to traditional training models; and the proposed model could be used to solve the multidimensional nonlinear problem in the intelligent monitoring of hydrostatic turntables.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-03-2024-0081/

The sustainable development of contractor organizations depends highly on bidding decision-making of projects. This current study, leveraging the risk decision-making theory, attempts to elucidate the process of contractors’ bid/no-bid decision-making and reveal how the process is influenced by their perception of risk. In particular, this study aims to explore the multiple mediating effects of contractors’ trust in owners and risk perception in explaining the relationship between contractual governance outlined in owners’ bidding documents and the bid/no-bid decisions.

A questionnaire survey was used to obtain data from the Chinese construction industry. The PLS-SEM technique was employed to analyze a dataset of 557 available questionnaires.

The findings indicate that (1) the contractual governance provided by owners’ bidding documents positively impacts contractors’ bid/no-bid decisions; (2) both risk perception and trust serve as multiple mediators in this relationship and (3) trust mediates the relationship between contractual governance and contractors’ risk perception.

Drawing upon the risk decision-making theory, this study proposes a multiple mediation model for understanding contractors’ bid/no-bid decision-making processes. It contributes to a better understanding of contractors’ bidding decision-making mechanisms, thereby offering theoretical guidance for contractors to make reasonable and informed risk decisions.