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The paper aims to reveal the relationship among energy efficiency, thermal comfort and thermal regulation of electrically heated footwear and to investigate influencing factors on the energy efficiency and thermal comfort.

A finite volume model was proposed to simulate the two-dimensional heat transfer in electrically heated footwear (EHF) under an extremely cold condition. The model domain consists of three-layer footwear materials, a heating pad, a sock material, an air gap and skin tissues. Model predictions were verified by experimental data from cold-contact exposure. Then the influencing factors on the energy efficiency and thermal comfort were investigated through parametric analysis.

The paper demonstrated that the skin temperature control (STC) mode provided superior thermal comfort compared to the heating pad temperature control (HPTC) mode. However, the energy efficiency for the HPTC mode with a heating temperature of 38 °C was 18% higher than the STC mode. The energy efficiency of EHF while reaching the state of thermal comfort was strongly determined by the arrangement and connection of heating elements, heating temperature, thickness and thermal conductivity of footwear materials.

The findings obtained in this paper can be used to engineer the EHF that provides optimal thermal comfort and energy efficiency in cold environments.

The study investigates the motivations, learning experiences and impacts of Chilean student mobility in China, focusing on postgraduate students. It analyzes how this education has influenced their professional trajectories and Sino-Chilean relations.

The methodology employs a qualitative approach, based on 13 semi-structured interviews, with an analysis covering aspects such as the reasons for studying in China, the acquisition of Mandarin Chinese, the academic experience and professional projections.

The research concludes that these students, trained in China, significantly contribute to strengthening bilateral ties in various fields, highlighting cultural diplomacy as a key factor in expanding collaboration between the two countries.

Additionally, it underscores the need to consider student mobility as an essential component of relations between Chile and China, in particular, and among different Global South countries in general, transcending the limitations of financing criteria and the Eurocentric orientation that predominates in the internationalization policies of Chilean higher education.

Maritime transportation plays an important role in facilitating both the global and regional merchandise trade, where accurate trend prediction is crucial in assisting decision-making in the industry. This paper aims to conduct a macro-level study to predict world vessel supply and demand.

The automatic autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) is used for the univariate vessel supply and demand time-series forecasting based on the data records from 1980 to 2021.

For the future projection of the demand side, the predicted outcomes for total vessel demand and world dry cargo vessel demand until 2030 indicate upward trends. For the supply side, the predominant upward trends for world total vessel supply, oil tanker vessel supply, container vessel supply and other types of vessel supply are captured. The world bulk carrier vessel supply prediction results indicate an initial upward trend, followed by a slight decline, while the forecasted world general cargo vessel supply values remain relatively stable. By comparing the predicted percentage change rates, there is a gradual convergence between demand and supply change rates in the near future. We also find that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the time-series prediction results is not statistically significant.

The results can provide policy implications in strategic planning and operation to various stakeholders in the shipping industry for vessel building, scrapping and deployment.

This study aims to reveal the positive effects of workplace fun forms on employee positive affect state and workplace well-being. This study also aims to examine workplace friendship opportunity and workplace friendship prevalence in the context of fun events and workplace well-being.

The research model developed and tested with responses from 1,000 thousand Indian frontline employees of five-star hotels who have worked in the hospitality industry for at least two years and who have been exposed to fun committees at their workplace.

This study revealed that workplace fun forms are the main causes of employee positive affective reactions, and they have positive effects on frontline employees' positive affect. The study also found that fun activities, customer interaction with fun and manager support for fun as workplace events are strong proximal causes for forming positive affect when they have workplace friendship opportunity. Coworker socialization can induce employee positive affect in the workplace, even without the moderating effect of workplace friendship opportunity. Additionally, the positive effect of positive affect was found to be significant on workplace well-being.

Hospitality management is required to foster fun culture with fun activities, coworker socialization, manager support for fun and customer interaction with fun that enhance employee affective reactions to uplift employee positive affect state. This study also presents more interesting practical implications for practitioners and managers.

This study empirically tested deferential workplace fun forms on positive affect, and study provides novel insights into positive affect and workplace well-being. Four mediation mechanisms examined on fun forms and workplace well-being. Four moderating roles of workplace friendship opportunity tested on positive affect and fun events. Workplace friendship prevalence moderation on positive affect and workplace well-being helped to understand employee cognitive mechanism.

This study aims to inspect the impact of US climate policy uncertainty (CPU) on the economic growth of Asian countries with the moderating role of crude oil price (COP) changes.

The Im-Pesaran Sin and Fisher-type tests are used for stationarity check, while Kao and Pedroni tests are used for cointegration analysis. The Hausman test is applied for model selection, where pooled mean group autoregressive distributed lag (PMG/ARDL) has been selected and applied. Besides, the fully modified ordinary least squares is also used for robustness analysis. Additionally, the literature review and descriptive statistics have been used.

The main findings disclosed that US CPU negatively impacted the economic growth of Asian economies with high significance in the long run whereas insignificant in the short run. The results further concluded that COP positively affected economic growth both in the short and long run. Furthermore, the results also revealed that COP significantly and positively moderates the relationship between CPU and COP in the long and short run.

The study is the first of its kind to examine the impact of the US CPU on the economic growth of Asian economies. Second, it further revealed the moderating role of COP between US CPU and economic growth. Third, a large panel of data from Asian countries has been considered. Fourth, the study adds to the current literature by using the PMG/ARDL model to determine the impact of US CPU on economic growth. Additionally, this study focuses on the US CPU because it is a developed country playing a significant role in energy and climate issues, and has been very uncertain.

This paper examines how firms respond to local government’s environment initiatives through textual analysis of government work reports (GWRs). This study aims to provide insights into how firms strategically respond to government’s environmental initiatives through their disclosure and investment practices.

This study uses a textual analysis of GWRs from China’s provinces. The frequency and change rate of environmental keywords in these reports are used as a measure of the government’s environmental initiatives.

This study finds that environmental disclosure scores in environmental, social and governance (ESG) reports increase with the frequency or change rate of environmental keywords in provincial GWRs. This effect is more pronounced for non-state-owned enterprises, firms in highly marketized provinces or those listed in a single capital market. However, there is no significant relationship between firms’ environmental investments and government initiatives, except for cross-listed firms in provinces with consistently high frequency of environmental keywords in their GWRs.

The findings indicate that government environmental initiatives can shape firms’ disclosure behaviors, yet have limited influence on investment decisions, suggesting that environmental disclosure could potentially be opportunistic. This underscores the need for more effective strategies to stimulate firms’ environmental investments.

This study provides valuable insights into the differential impacts of government environmental initiatives on firms’ disclosure and investment behaviors, contributing to the understanding of corporate environmental responsibility in the context of government initiatives.

This study responded to the call to empirically reconcile conflicting findings in unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) literature. It did so by examining the influence of organizational culture on the relationship between affective organizational commitment and UPB.

Using a sample of 710 U.S. service sector employees based on a three-wave data collection design, structural invariance assessment was utilized to evaluate the relationship between affective organizational commitment and UPB across organizational cultures with opposing effectiveness criteria (i.e. focused on stability vs flexibility).

The result indicated a statistically significant positive direct effect between affective organizational commitment and UPB for the stability-focused cultures, while finding a statistically insignificant effect for the flexibility-focused cultures. These results support organizational culture research, which shows that organizational cultures with opposing effectiveness criteria (i.e. stability vs flexibility) can either encourage or discourage ethical behavior.

While leaders and managers encourage employee commitment to the organization, it is important to understand that increased organizational commitment is not limited to positive outcomes. Cultivating elements of flexibility-oriented cultures, like promoting teamwork (as in clan cultures) or fostering innovation and adaptability (as in adhocracy cultures), can be a strategic approach to minimize the chances of UPB among committed employees.

By integrating insights from social exchange theory, Trevino’s interactionist model and the competing values framework, we have contributed to a nuanced understanding of how different organizational cultures can suppress or stimulate UPB.

The study aims to test the framework that proposes the role of resources (intellectual capital) in mobilizing entrepreneurial orientation that influences the competitiveness improvement of micro-small-medium enterprises (MSMEs) under the lens of resource orchestration theory.

In this study, 347 respondents from the MSMEs participated through a structured questionnaire. For the data analysis purpose, the structural equation modeling technique was employed using SmartPLS software.

The results suggest human, structural, and relational capital are significant antecedents of entrepreneurial orientation, which leads to competitiveness improvement. The findings also indicate the mediation role of entrepreneurial orientation between intellectual capital and competitiveness improvement.

The current study presumably will supplement the promising research effort to progress the research orchestration theory and also could be a strategic guideline for the managers/owners of the MSMEs.

This study is possibly a novel attempt to divulge the association between intellectual capital (tripartite model) and competitiveness improvement of firms under the lens of resource orchestration theory.

The inclusion of esports as an official event in the Hangzhou Asian Games is an important step towards the institutionalisation of esports. The significance of this event marks that Asia once again takes a lead in the global esportisation. This chapter investigates a series of history events in the inclusion process of esports into the comprehensive Games in Asia using process sociology and actor network theory (ANT). This study will analyse the type characteristics of esports events in Hangzhou Asian Games, whilst examining how key stakeholders' interact and balance in the network composed of international sports organisations, host of the event, emerging esports organisations and esports game companies. The chapter also examines the functions of global game industrial economic geography, local cultural politics, esports geopolitics and Olympic values in esports sportization, aiming to reveal the implications of esports inclusion in the Asian Games on the debate of whether esports meets the criteria to be classified as a ‘sport’ and its enlightenment of digital strategy to the inclusion esports in the Olympics.

The literature on unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPOB) has experienced significant growth in the past decade. However, there is limited research on the effects of organizational, team and malleable individual factors on UPOB. It is also necessary to explore its adverse effects for theoretical advancement and to uncover unexplored opportunities. This study aims to systematically examine the existing body of literature on UPOB, providing thorough theoretical, contextual and methodological insights.

Using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis technique, the authors identified 43 articles on UPOB from journals included in the ABDC-2019 list. The authors conducted an analysis of the identified articles and categorized them using a modified version of Paul and Rosado-Serrano’s (2019) TCCM framework.

Existing literature primarily focuses on attitudinal and contextual antecedents of UPOB, neglecting individual differences and their consequences. The review suggests that certain desired employee attitudes may also lead to UPOB. In addition, the study highlights underutilization of established behavioral theories, emphasizing the need for a more inclusive theoretical framework. The exploration identifies research gaps, including in multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary studies, aiming to broaden the research scope in this field.

The study highlights the need for a more comprehensive theoretical framework to understand UPOB.

It cautions organizations fostering positive employee attitudes, such as job satisfaction, workplace spirituality and organizational commitment, as these may inadvertently promote UPOB.

Socially, the paper highlights how engaging in UPOB affects the lives of involved employees.

This paper’s originality arises from its methodical review and categorization of prior research on UPOB using a distinctive, multidisciplinary research framework.