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This study aims to examine the relationship between managerial ability and innovation efficiency, the mediating effect of digital transformation and the moderating effect of internal control.

This study collected A-share manufacturing listed companies in China from 2008 to 2019 and analyzed the data by means of multiple regression analysis, mediating effect test, moderating effect test and heterogeneity test. Finally, the authors conducted robustness test by remeasuring key variables and adding control variables.

The empirical results show that the higher managerial ability can improve innovation efficiency, internal control has a positive moderating effect and digital transformation plays a partial mediating effect on the relationship between managerial ability and innovation efficiency. Specially, it is found that the mediating effect of digital transformation is not significant in non-state-owned firms.

This study suggests that it is necessary to focus on the managerial ability in terms of both cultivation and supervision, to further deepen the digital transformation from the aspects of firms, government and society, especially to support the digital transformation of non-state-owned firms, and to make efforts to improve the corporate governance mechanism and internal control system, so as to better comprehensively realize the improvement of enterprise innovation efficiency.

Based on the mediating effect analysis of digital transformation and the moderating effect analysis of internal control, this study explores the role of managerial ability on innovation efficiency from a new perspective, expanding the related theoretical framework and research boundaries.

Political factors play a crucial role in China's initial public offering (IPO) market due to its distinctive institutional context (i.e. “economic decentralization” and “political centralization”). Given the significant level of IPO underpricing in China, we examine the impact of local political uncertainty (measured by prefecture-level city official turnover rate) on IPO underpricing.

Using 2,259 IPOs of A-share listed companies from 2001 to 2019, we employ a structural equation model (SEM) to examine the channel (voluntarily lower the issuance price vs aftermarket trading) through which political uncertainty affects IPO underpricing. We check the robustness of the results using bootstrap tests, adopting alternative proxies for political uncertainty and IPO underpricing and employing subsample analysis.

Local official turnover-induced political uncertainty increases IPO underpricing by IPO firms voluntarily reducing the issuance price rather than by affecting investor sentiment in aftermarket trading. These relations are stronger in firms with pre-IPO political connections. The effect of political uncertainty on IPO underpricing is also contingent upon the industry and the growth phase of an IPO firm, more pronounced in politically sensitive industries and firms listed on the growth enterprise market board.

Local government officials in China usually have a short tenure and Chinese firms witness significantly severe IPO underpricing. By introducing the SEM model in studying China IPO underpricing, this study identifies the channel through which local government official turnover to political uncertainty on IPO underpricing.

This study aims to integrate perspectives of transaction costs and capabilities to investigate how the configurational fit between outsourcing strategies, asset specificity of projects and the capabilities of general contractors could achieve high outsourcing performance.

Employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, this study analyzes 31 outsourcing cases in construction projects to examine outsourcing performance under different combinations of transaction costs and capabilities.

The findings highlight six different but functionally equivalent configurations to high outsourcing performance, which vary according to attributes of projects and capabilities of contractors. Further, this study develops four context-dependent paths that link outsourcing strategies to high outsourcing performance: leading practitioner, collaborative manager, partnership dependent, and struggler.

How do contractors in construction projects navigate outsourcing practices to high performance? This study provides a configurational perspective to make outsourcing strategy decisions. Based on the firm’s capabilities and project asset specificity, contractors are encouraged to select from six different but functionally equivalent combinations and thereby four outsourcing strategies, namely leading practitioner, collaborative manager, partnership dependent, and struggler, to achieve high outsourcing performance.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge by offering a holistic perspective that integrates production and transaction costs to analyze contractors’ outsourcing strategies, contributing to the integration of the transaction cost perspective and capability perspective.

The aim was to investigate the effect of Cr₃C₂ mass fraction the high-temperature tribological performance of laser cladded WC-10Co₄Cr coating, in which the Cr₃C₂ played the role in enhancing wear resistance.

The WC-10Co₄Cr-xCr₃C₂ (x = 5%, 10% and 15%) were prepared on H13 steel using laser cladding, and their coefficients of friction and wear rates at 500°C were investigated using a ball-on-disc wear tester.

The WC-10Co4Cr-xCr₃C₂ powders are composed of WC, Co₃W₃C, CoCr and Cr₃C₂ phases, and the defects such as pores and cracks are reduced by the addition of Cr₃C₂. The coefficient of friction and wear rats of WC-10Co4Cr-xCr₃C₂ coatings are decreased with the Cr₃C₂ mass fraction, showing that the addition of Cr₃C₂ significantly enhances the tribological properties of WC-10Co₄Cr coating. The wear mechanism is adhesive wear and oxidation wear, and the Cr₃C₂ plays the roles of friction reduction and wear resistance, which provides valuable insights into optimizing the performance of WC-10Co₄Cr coating.

The Cr₃C₂ was first added into the laser cladded WC-10Co₄Cr coating, which improved its high-temperature tribological performance.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-12-2024-0471/

Job seekers frequently experience incivility during interactions with recruiters, which can negatively influence their job search behaviors. However, the underlying causes of such incivility remain underexplored. Based on attribution theory, this study examines how recruiters’ attributions about leader–member exchange (LMX) influence their psychological entitlement, which in turn shapes incivility toward job seekers.

The survey data was collected in three waves from 320 recruiters involved in the recruitment process.

The results found that when recruiters hold high levels of self-serving attribution, LMX quality is positively related to their psychological entitlement, which, in turn, promotes incivility toward job seekers.

Leaders should pay special attention to recruiters with high self-serving attributions when establishing LMX with them, as high-quality LMX may elicit a sense of psychological entitlement and potentially influence their uncivil behaviors.

Unlike prior studies that have focused on the negative outcomes of incivility experienced by job seekers, this study empirically reveals the potential antecedents of such incivility.

Tacit and explicit knowledge sharing play crucial roles in today’s rapidly changing business environment, particularly in fostering innovation. However, uncovering tacit knowledge sharing remains complex. The purpose of this study is to analyze the mediating roles of tacit and explicit knowledge in the relationship between a knowledge-sharing culture and organizational creativity.

In this study, the authors developed an extended analytical process to analyze the impact of explicit and tacit knowledge on a knowledge-sharing culture and organizational creativity. This process combines two analytical techniques: necessary condition analysis (NCA) and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). NCA identifies essential bottlenecks for a specific outcome, while PLS-SEM uncovers strong connections between predictor and outcome variables. The authors applied these analyses to a sample of 155 IT experts from a leading telecom company in the Turkish ICT industry to test the relevant hypotheses.

The findings of this study indicate that tacit knowledge, rather than explicit knowledge, partially mediates the relationship between a knowledge-sharing culture and organizational creativity. This mediating role of tacit knowledge is particularly pronounced in the ICT sector. Additionally, the impact of organizational capabilities on organizational creativity is amplified by higher levels of tacit knowledge sharing.

The effect of organizational capabilities on organizational creativity was found to increase because of tacit knowledge sharing compared to explicit knowledge sharing, depending on the knowledge-sharing climate.

While the impact of digitalization on businesses has been extensively studied, the influence of digitalization on marketing outcomes in private enterprises has not received sufficient attention. The current study aims to examine how and when digitalization affects international marketing decisions in the context of private enterprises.

This study employs data from a survey of Chinese private enterprises conducted in 2020, which constitutes the world's largest dataset of its kind. Nearly 19,000 samples were included in the study. Additionally, we also incorporate supplementary data on digitalization in the Chinese region. Employing various methods, this study empirically and robustly examines the proposed research framework within the context of Chinese private enterprises.

Based on the resource-based view and agency theory, this paper found that digitalization can positively impact private enterprises’ direct and indirect international marketing decisions. Furthermore, we introduce the inclusion of innovation capacity and board governance as moderators in the model and find that board governance attenuates the influence of digitalization on international marketing decisions, while innovation capacity enhances the impact of digitalization on direct international marketing but diminishes its effect on indirect international marketing.

This study advances the understanding of the impact of digitalization on international marketing in private enterprises, thereby addressing the gap in the limited focus on digitalization in private enterprises. It also demonstrates how private enterprises effectively utilize digitalization to gain marketing advantages in the international market.

The bridge expansion joint (BEJ) is a key device for accommodating spatial displacement at the beam end, and for providing vertical support for running trains passing over the gap between the main bridge and the approach bridge. For long-span railway bridges, it must also be coordinated with rail expansion joint (REJ), which is necessary to accommodate the expansion and contraction of, and reducing longitudinal stress in, the rails. The main aim of this study is to present analysis of recent developments in the research and application of BEJs in high-speed railway (HSR) long-span bridges in China, and to propose a performance-based integral design method for BEJs used with REJs, from both theoretical and engineering perspectives.

The study first presents a summary on the application and maintenance of BEJs in HSR long-span bridges in China representing an overview of their state of development. Results of a survey of typical BEJ faults were analyzed, and field testing was conducted on a railway cable-stayed bridge in order to obtain information on the major mechanical characteristics of its BEJ under train load. Based on the above, a performance-based integral design method for BEJs with maximum expansion range 1600 mm (±800 mm), was proposed, covering all stages from overall conceptual design to consideration of detailed structural design issues. The performance of the novel BEJ design thus derived was then verified via theoretical analysis under different scenarios, full-scale model testing, and field testing and commissioning.

Two major types of BEJs, deck-type and through-type, are used in HSR long-span bridges in China. Typical BEJ faults were found to mainly include skewness of steel sleepers at the bridge gap, abnormally large longitudinal frictional resistance, and flexural deformation of the scissor mechanisms. These faults influence BEJ functioning, and thus adversely affect track quality and train running performance at the beam end. Due to their simple and integral structure, deck-type BEJs with expansion range 1200 mm (± 600 mm) or less have been favored as a solution offering improved operational conditions, and have emerged as a standard design. However, when the expansion range exceeds the above-mentioned value, special design work becomes necessary. Therefore, based on engineering practice, a performance-based integral design method for BEJs used with REJs was proposed, taking into account four major categories of performance requirements, i.e., mechanical characteristics, train running quality, durability and insulation performance. Overall BEJ design must mainly consider component strength and the overall stiffness of BEJ; the latter factor in particular has a decisive influence on train running performance at the beam end. Detailed BEJ structural design must stress minimization of the frictional resistance of its sliding surface. The static and dynamic performance of the newly-designed BEJ with expansion range 1600 mm have been confirmed to be satisfactory, via numerical simulation, full-scale model testing, and field testing and commissioning.

This research provides a broad overview of the status of BEJs with large expansion range in HSR long-span bridges in China, along with novel insights into their design.

This study aims to investigate the effect of powder recycling on the microstructure of plasma-sprayed Ni625-WC composite coating and to verify the feasibility of Ni625-WC powder recycling by comparing the corrosion resistance of the coatings in high-temperature and pressure CO₂ environment.

Recycling powder is an efficient way to improve the utilization rate of metal powder during plasma spraying. The plasma-sprayed Ni625-WC composite coatings with original powder (OC) and recovered powder (RC) were analytically compared by using scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with an energy-dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometer, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The corrosion resistance of the Ni625-WC composite coatings was characterized in a self-designed high-temperature and pressure autoclave by an electrochemical workstation.

The results showed that there is massive M₂₃C₆ in OC and acicular M₂₃C₆ in RC. The WC particles in RC are more uniformly distributed, and the area ratios of WC particles to Inconel 625 matrix are 2.37% higher than OC. RC showed high corrosion resistance, and the recycling of Ni625-WC powder is feasible.

The feasibility of Ni625-WC powder recycling was verified from the microstructure evolution and electrochemical behavior of the coatings.

National identity has a profound impact on building a modern state, maintaining social stability and promoting economic development. Based on three waves of data collected from the World Values Survey (WVS) in Hong Kong between 2005 and 2018, this study aims to examine the changes in the national identity awareness of Hong Kongese over time.

The data used in this paper originate from the WVS. The WVS is a cross-country time-series survey that has been carried out in seven waves in 85 countries around the world, since 1981. There are three waves of data involving Hong Kong, which were obtained from the surveys in 2005, 2014 and 2018.

This study examined the changes in the national identity awareness of Hong Kongese over time and found that this has shown both continuity and rupture. Extreme groups lacking national identity have emerged and become more common over the decades and the elites’ national identity is much stronger than that of the lower and middle classes. It also shows that political trust, social capital, subjective well-being and possession of authoritarian personality have strong explanatory power for the changes in Hong Kongese national identity over time, but their explanatory strength varies across eras.

Based on three waves of surveys conducted by the WVS in Hong Kong in 2005, 2014 and 2018, respectively, this paper charts these changes over time and explores the differences in how they are influenced by political trust, social capital, subjective well-being and authoritarian personality.