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This study aims to assess the mediating and driving roles of knowledge cooperation in the effectiveness of G60 Sci-tech Innovation Corridor (G60 STIC) for regional collaborative innovation within the knowledge economy context. Furthermore, it focuses on whether knowledge cooperation is more effective than resource cooperation in terms of spatial spillover and its mediating effects on collaborative innovation.

This study employs multiple statistical and econometric approaches, including social cooperation network, Super-DEA, spatial difference-in-difference model (SDID) and mediating effect model, to measure the effectiveness of knowledge cooperation and resource cooperation paths within the framework of the G60 STIC on regional collaborative innovation in the Yangtze River Delta region (YRD) from 2002 to 2022.

First, the knowledge cooperation networks validate the strengthening of collaborative innovation is primarily centred on provincial cities and leading manufacturing locales, with smaller cities radiating outwards from these centres. The knowledge cooperation network was generally stronger than the resource cooperation network. Second, the G60 STIC significantly enhances collaborative innovation efficiency by intensifying knowledge, resource and interactive cooperation networks. Third, within the context of the knowledge economy, knowledge cooperation presents a stronger spillover and mediating effect in stimulating collaborative innovation than resource cooperation.

This study clarifies the existence of a knowledge cooperation network and its mediating role in stimulating the effectiveness of strategic, innovative platforms on collaborative innovation. This further verifies the stronger role of the knowledge cooperation than the resource cooperation, which serves as a vital element in promoting strategic innovative platforms to optimise collaborative innovation.

The purpose of this study is to explore the interfacial adhesion between superhydrophobic coatings FC-X (X = 1%, 2%, 3%, 4% and 5%) and the concrete substrate, along with the impact of FC-X on the water repellency characteristics of the concrete substrate.

One synthetic step was adopted to prepare novel F-SiO₂ NP hybrid fluororesin coating. The impact of varying mass fractions of F-SiO₂ NPs on the superhydrophobicity of FC-X was analyzed and subsequently confirmed through water contact angle (WCA) measurements. Superhydrophobic coatings were simply applied to the concrete substrate using a one-step spraying method. The interfacial adhesion between FC-X and the concrete substrate was analyzed using tape pasting tests and abrasion resistance measurements. The influence of FC-X on the water repellency of the concrete substrate was investigated through measurements of water absorption, impermeability and electric flux.

FC-4% exhibits excellent superhydrophobicity, with a WCA of 157.5° and a sliding angle of 2.3°. Compared to control sample, FC-X exhibits better properties, including chemical durability, wear resistance, adhesion strength, abrasion resistance, water resistance and impermeability.

This study offers a thorough investigation into the practical implications of enhancing the durability and water repellency of concrete substrates by using superhydrophobic coatings, particularly FC-4%, which demonstrates exceptional superhydrophobicity alongside remarkable chemical durability, wear resistance, adhesion strength, abrasion resistance, water resistance and impermeability.

Through the examination of the interfacial adhesion between FC-X and the concrete substrate, along with an assessment of FC-X’s impact on the water repellency of the concrete, this paper provides valuable insights into the practical application of superhydrophobic coatings in enhancing the durability and performance of concrete materials.

Illegitimate tasks are pervasive in organizations, presenting a challenge for employees to mitigate their impact. However, despite their significance, there has been limited research on when and how employees can adapt to these tasks successfully. To address this gap, this study aimed to discover the relationship between illegitimate tasks and adaptive performance, drawing upon the job demands-resources theory. Specifically, this study aimed to examine the moderating role of general self-efficacy and the mediating roles of employee problem-focused and emotion-focused coping.

To examine our hypotheses, we conducted a time-lagged survey, comprising 3 waves and involving 313 employees from twenty enterprises situated in Guangzhou and Sichuan, China. Ordinary least squares (OLS) was adopted to examine our hypotheses.

Our results suggested that general self-efficacy played a crucial role in determining how employees would cope with illegitimate tasks and their subsequent adaptive performance when confronted with illegitimate tasks. Notably, employees who possess high levels of general self-efficacy utilize problem-focused coping, improving adaptive performance in handling illegitimate tasks. Conversely, employees who possess low levels of general self-efficacy rely on emotion-focused coping, leading to lower levels of adaptive performance.

This research contributes to the literature on illegitimate tasks by uncovering when and how such tasks can either promote or hinder adaptive performance. These findings offer practical insights into ways to assist employees in managing illegitimate tasks effectively.

Although various stakeholder groups frequently advocate and call for greater heterogeneity among directors and managers, it remains unknown whether team heterogeneity can be beneficial for audit committee to exercise the auditor selection functions. This study aims to address this question.

Drawing on a sample of domestically listed nonfinancial A-share firms in China from 2008 to 2022, the authors empirically examine whether and how firm’s audit committee heterogeneity associates with the selection of auditors.

Firms with higher levels of audit committee heterogeneity are more likely to be associated with lower-quality auditors. Further examination reveals the mediating role of risk-taking: higher levels of heterogeneity are associated with higher levels of risk-taking, influencing firms to employ lower-quality auditors. Moreover, the authors document that increased audit committee heterogeneity is associated with more audit committee meetings and lower audit efficiency, and that hiring lower-quality auditors can influence the market value of firms with high audit committee heterogeneity.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine whether and how audit committee erogeneity associates with the selection of auditors. Moreover, because China is a high-power distance, collectivism-oriented, more relations-based (i.e. guanxi-based) than rules-based society, it is critical to examine the influence of team heterogeneity based on the unique cultural context and transitional nature of China’s business environment.

Drawing on the tenets of institutional theory, the purpose of this study is to examine the impact of Confucianism on technology for social good, while also considering the moderating influence of extrinsic informal institutions (foreign culture) and intrinsic formal institutions (property rights).

This study constructs a comprehensive database comprising 9,759 firm-year observations in China by using a sample of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2016 to 2020. Subsequently, the hypotheses are examined and confirmed, with the validity of the results being upheld even after conducting endogenous and robustness tests.

The findings of this study offer robust and consistent evidence supporting the notion that Confucianism positively affects technology for social good through both incentive effect and normative effect. Moreover, this positive influence is particularly prominent in organizations with limited exposure to foreign culture and in nonstate-owned enterprises.

The findings contribute to the literature by fostering a deep understanding of technology for social good and Confucianism research, and further provide a nuanced picture of the role of foreign culture and property rights in the process of technology for social good in China.

Based on the advice response theory perspective, this study aims to investigate the effects of human managers and artificial intelligence (AI) systems on customer-contact employees’ aversion to AI systems in the hospitality industry. It examined the mediating role of advice content characteristics (efficacy, feasibility and implementation limitations) and advice delivery (facework and comprehensibility) on customer-contact employees’ aversion to AI systems.

Two scenario-based experiments were conducted (Nexperiment 1 = 499 and Nexperiment 2 = 300). Experiment 1 compared the effects of different advisor types (human managers vs AI systems) on employees’ aversion to AI systems. Experiment 2 investigated the mediating role of advice content characteristics (efficacy, feasibility and implementation limitations) and advice delivery (facework and comprehensibility).

The results showed employees tended to prioritize advice from human managers over output from AI systems. Moreover, advice content characteristics (efficacy, feasibility and implementation limitations) and advice delivery (facework and comprehensibility) played mediating roles in the relationship between advisor type characteristics and employees’ aversion to AI systems.

These findings contribute to the understanding of AI system aversion and provide theoretical insights into management practices involving customer-contact employees who interact with AI technology in the hospitality industry.

The primary contribution of this study is that it enriches the literature on employee aversion to AI systems by exploring the dual mediators (advice content characteristics and advice delivery) through which advisor type characteristics affect AI system aversion.

This study examines whether Confucian culture can promote enterprise total factor productivity (TFP), and it also studies how transmission mechanism works on enterprise TFP.

Based on the data of A-share listed companies on Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets from 2008 to 2019, this study measures the influence of Confucian culture on enterprise TFP by the number of Confucian academies and Confucian temples within three radius ranges of a company's registered address.

The empirical results show that Confucian culture has a positive effect on the enterprise TFP. The transmission mechanism test shows that Confucian culture can promote the TFP of Chinese enterprises through reducing agency cost, improving agency efficiency and enhancing innovation.

The findings in this study provide implications for policymakers, scholars and enterprises. The results show that Confucian culture can enhance the TFP of Chinese enterprises. Especially in emerging markets including China, the Confucian culture, as an informal institution, can effectively complement formal institutions, promoting enterprise TFP.

This study expands the literature on Confucian culture in two aspects: the influence of Confucian culture on TFP and its transmission mechanism. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to identify a link between Confucian culture and enterprise TFP.

This study aims to propose a service robot option to address shortages of human frontline employees (FLEs) in long-term care (LTC) service settings. With a field study, the authors investigate the effect of psychological comfort with robot reminders of LTC residents and human FLEs on acceptance and attentive engagement, ultimately resulting in effort and willingness to interact with the service robot. The outcomes provide valuable insights into human-robot interaction in the LTC sector.

The 45 residents and 49 human FLEs who participated in the field study completed a survey measuring various perceptual variables after deploying a service robot.

Both the residents’ sample and the FLE sample demonstrate that psychological comfort with robot reminders increases robot acceptance. This increased acceptance evokes greater attentive engagement, ultimately leading to a higher willingness to exert effort to interact with the service robots.

This study highlights service robots with well-received reminder functions and the ability to prompt efforts by both residents and employees during their implementation at LTC services. The findings suggest further research avenues for designing service robots that can be effectively integrated.

This study leverages a service robot in a field study involving LTC residents and human FLEs rather than hypothetical scenarios, which is rather limited in current studies. The findings are both timely and relevant, considering the gradual implementation of service robots into LTC services.

We expand the recent literature on the dynamics of capital structure decisions by investigating the impact of national culture on firms' optimal debt ratios and their dynamic re-adjustment process. To this end, we aim at estimating firm-specific speeds of leverage adjustment, allowing for heterogeneous dynamics in firms' capital structure.

We use dynamic panel data estimators to analyze the impact of cultural factors on the dynamics of debt ratios.

We show that national culture affects the optimal level of leverage and the dynamic rebalancing of debt ratios, both directly and indirectly, by altering the effect of firm characteristics and macroeconomic factors on firms' financing behavior. Firms converge faster towards the optimal leverage in countries with a stronger attitude to conform with the norm, while they are slower where there is a higher propensity to intellectual autonomy. A higher risk aversion and long-run propensity induce over-levered firms to reduce leverage faster, making the adjustment process strongly asymmetric. Moreover, national culture also produces indirect effects by mitigating the impact of asymmetric information on capital structure decisions. Indeed, firms in more individualistic countries display a lower speed of adjustment and a stronger effect of firm characteristics associated with higher agency costs. On the contrary, firms in countries with a higher tendency to conform to social norms, less individualistic and more long-term oriented have a higher adjustment speed and appear to suffer less from agency issues. Our results therefore highlight how national culture affects agency problems within firms, thus suggesting the adoption of country-specific corporate governance provisions accounting for the effects of local cultural traits on managers' behavior.

We expand the capital structure and governance literature by showing how cultural traits impact on the dynamics of debt ratios. In particular, we show how cultural traits may mitigate or exacerbate the role of agency issues on firms' behavior, hence suggesting that cultural factors may interact with governance rules in shaping firms' decisions. Therefore, our work highlights how policy-makers should include cultural aspects when defining regulation concerning corporate governance.

This study examines the relationship between guanxi human resource management (HRM) practices and psychological withdrawal behavior and its mechanism, and examines the mediating role of psychological contract breach and the moderating role of employee resilience.

This study collected 287 three-stage questionnaires from 62 teams from public institutions, large state-owned enterprises and private enterprises in Sichuan Province, and used regression analysis, PROCESS and Amos structural equation model to test the research hypothesis.

Guanxi HRM practices positively influenced the employees’ psychological withdrawal behavior, and psychological contract breach played a mediating role in the relationship. Employee resilience not only moderated guanxi HRM practice and psychological contract breach but also moderated the mediating effect of psychological contract breach between guanxi HRM practice and psychological withdrawal behavior.

This study revealed the impact of guanxi HRM practices on employees’ psychological withdrawal behavior, which often serves as an early indicator of mental health issues. This finding has important implications for the research on relation-oriented HRM practices.