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This study aims to contribute to the existing institutional literature by examining the impact of regional social trust on foreign firm performance.

In this study, 10,286 annual observations of foreign firms in China from 2008 to 2020 are used to test the research hypotheses using an ordinary least square regression model.

Social trust can improve foreign firm performance by reducing operating costs and increasing risk-taking capacity, while formal institutions and economic policy uncertainty strengthen the positive relationship between social trust and foreign firm performance. Moreover, the results of the heterogeneity test show that the positive relationship is only manifested in the samples from the eastern region and is more pronounced in the samples of small- and medium-sized foreign firms and non-manufacturing foreign firms.

This study makes a theoretical contribution to the literature on institutional theory and foreign firm performance, as well as providing practical guidance to foreign firms on how to improve their performance.

This research is aimed to examine how environmental pollution affects consumers' preference for self-improvement products.

Through a series of three experimental studies, this research substantiates our hypotheses by employing various manipulations of environmental pollution and examining different types of self-improvement products.

The research demonstrates that environmental pollution enhances consumers' preference for self-improvement products via the mediation of perceived environmental responsibility. And the effect is negatively moderated by social equity sensitivity.

The recurrent incidence of environmental pollution has elicited significant concern among the general public and academic scholars. An overwhelming majority of research examining the impact of pollution on consumer behavior has concentrated on its influence on environmentally friendly and healthy consumption patterns. Nevertheless, the current research proposes that pollution fosters a preference for products associated with self-improvement, mediated by perceived environmental responsibility, with the effects being moderated by social equity sensitivity.

This study examines the impact of CSR (corporate social responsibility) on stock price volatility of oil and gas firms and, then identifies the moderating role of tax avoidance.

To achieve the study's purposes, 330 observations are extracted from 30 oil and gas firms for the period between 2010 and 2020, and the estimation method of the Generalized Least Squares (GLS) is used. Actually, the CSR is proxied using the ESG (environmental, social, and governance) score, and the stock price volatility is measured by the degree of stock price variations over 12 months, according to the last 52 week's price.

The main findings indicate that CSR negatively impacts the stock price volatility. Nonetheless, this negative relationship is moderated positively by tax avoidance. This result is robust to the variation in the measure of volatility, namely the systematic risk.

This research is helpful for investors to manage their portfolio risk as this article highlights the importance of engaging in sustainable development to reduce financial risk. This study also helps regulators and policymakers, such as environmental agencies and tax authorities, to reassess their control with oil and gas firms and record them according to their CSR practices, because this article emphasizes that it is not fair to pay taxes and engage in CSR practices at the same time.

The impact of CSR on stock price volatility is widely treated for firms. Nevertheless, the mechanisms that may affect this relationship are still seldom discussed. This study attempts to examine the impact of tax avoidance on the CSR–stock price volatility relationship for the oil and gas industry.

This paper aims to enhance the machining accuracy of hybrid robots by treating the moving platform as the first joint of a serial robot for direct position measurement and integrating external grating sensors with motor encoders for real-time error compensation.

Initially, a spherical coordinate system is established using one linear and two circular grating sensors. This system enables direct acquisition of the moving platform’s position in the hybrid robot. Subsequently, during the coarse interpolation stage, the motor command for the next interpolation point is dynamically updated using error data from external grating sensors and motor encoders. Finally, fuzzy proportional integral derivative (PID) control is applied to maintain robot stability post-compensation.

Experiments were conducted on the TriMule-600 hybrid robot. The results indicate that the following errors of the five grating sensors are reduced by 94%, 93%, 80%, 75% and 88% respectively, after compensation. Using the fourth drive joint as an example, it was verified that fuzzy adaptive PID control performs better than traditional PID control.

The proposed online error compensation strategy significantly enhances the positional accuracy of the robot end, thereby improving the actual processing quality of the workpiece.

This method presents a technique for achieving online error compensation in hybrid robots, which promotes the advancement of the manufacturing industry.

This paper proposes a cost-effective and practical method for online error compensation in hybrid robots using grating sensors, which contributes to the advancement of hybrid robot technology.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of the laser cladding process on the microstructure, hardness and corrosion resistance properties of high-entropy alloys (HEA).

Laser cladding technology was used, using AlCoCrFeNiCu HEA powder as the cladding material. HEA coatings were prepared on the surface of 45 steel using a coaxial powder feeding method. The microstructure, phase composition, hardness and corrosion resistance properties of the HEA cladding layer were analyzed using optical microscopy (OM), X-ray diffractometer, digital microhardness tester and electrochemical workstation.

Laser power affects the coating surface; lower power reveals more visible unmelted powder particles. Higher power results in increased melt width and height, a brighter, smoother surface. Phase structure remains consistent, but the coating hardness is significantly higher than the substrate. The hardness of the melted zone in the substrate peaks at approximately 890.5 HV. The cladding zone hardness is about 60 HV higher than the substrate zone. Electrochemical corrosion parameters of the cladding show that, compared to the substrate, Ecor shifts positively by 113 mV, Icor decreases by one order of magnitude and Rp increases by one order of magnitude. These results indicate that the cladding has superior corrosion resistance to the substrate. The bonding strength between the coating and the substrate is greater than 93.6 MPa.

First, based on preliminary pilot experiments, nine sets of single-factor experiments were designed. Through these experiments, a specimen with relatively favorable cross-sectional morphology was observed. This specimen was then subjected to coating research, revealing that its microstructure and properties had significantly improved compared to the substrate. This enhancement holds remarkable significance for prolonging the service life of components.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-11-2024-0413/

While extensive research exists on how positive life circumstances and positive personality traits promote entrepreneurship, there is little research focusing on how negative personal circumstances may potentially breed entrepreneurship. This study aims to build upon the theory of underdog entrepreneurship to examine the effect of challenging life circumstances such as poverty on the development of entrepreneurial traits in underdog entrepreneurs. This research analyzed the effect of risk-taking (RT) on the entrepreneurial success (ES) of underdog entrepreneurs and the role of optimism (OPM) and persistence (P) as mediating variables and poverty as a moderator variable.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted to collect data from 400 micro-finance borrowers of Akhuwat Foundation Pakistan. Akhuwat provides interest-free small loans to the poor segment of society. Preliminary testing of the survey questionnaire with a sample of 35 borrowers of Akhuwat Foundation in Lahore city was conducted before data collection. Data was collected from four randomly selected branches in Lahore city.

The authors found that OPM and P significantly mediate the relationship between RT and ES. In addition, the authors analyzed the moderating effect of poverty on the relationship between OPM and ES and found a negative moderating effect. A strong positive moderating effect of poverty was found on the relationship between P and ES. The results of multi-group analysis show that successful and unsuccessful underdog entrepreneurs differ in their RT propensity, which is significantly mediated by OPM and P.

This study provides empirical evidence on entrepreneurial traits and success of poor entrepreneur in an emerging economy. This work is original and has not been submitted elsewhere.

Previous studies have mainly focused on the negative impact of illegitimate tasks on recipients but ignored its impact on observers. Drawing on deservingness theory, this research developed a moderated serial mediation model to examine the underlying mechanism in the relationship between observed illegitimate tasks and observers’ helping behaviour.

This research tested the model using a sample of 218 employees in China through a two-wave field study. A path analysis was conducted with the bootstrapping procedure to test the hypothesized model.

The results showed that the effect of observing illegitimate tasks was contingent upon the degree of the observer’s interpersonal liking towards the recipient. Specifically, when the observer had a high level of interpersonal liking for a coworker, the observer may perceive that the coworker was undeserving of being assigned illegitimate tasks, which increased sympathetic emotion and the sequent helping behaviour.

This study shifted the perspective of the illegitimate task literature from the recipient to the third parties. Additionally, it provided a finer-grained understanding of the mechanism between observed workplace disrespectful treatment and the observer’s helping behaviour.

The new era of supply chain management is characterised by key change drivers, e.g. Industry 4.0, and post-COVID-19 VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) business environment, in addition to the rising requirements for sustainability, responsiveness and customer centrism. An important and topical question in this context is what supply chain managerial competence logistics managers need to possess in order to enhance their individual performance in the new era. This question is addressed in this paper, which also explores the nexus of supply chain managerial competence expectation and possession upon which human resource development strategies are proposed accordingly.

The survey research design is adopted to empirically examine logistics managers’ supply chain managerial competence in the new era, and the forward-backward translation process was strictly followed. Data were collected through a survey conducted with owners or managers of Vietnamese firms whose business is in the logistics and related business areas, and 269 valid responses were used for analysis.

Results indicated that the proposed profile of four groups (foundation, core, specialist and technology-IT) and 38 competencies are valid and important to the individual performance of logistics managers in the context of Vietnam, which supports the tenet that logistics managers in the new era need to have a well-rounded profile of competencies, including those derived from contemporary change drivers. It was also found that the foundation competency group is perceived as more important than others, which is context specific given the current logistics development in Vietnam. Besides, it was also revealed that respondents in this research currently possess those competencies at a level which is lower than their perceived importance. An Importance-Possession (IPM) Matrix of Competency Development was mapped accordingly.

The generalisation of this study would require further empirical examination from similar studies in other contexts, i.e. in other manufacturing and service sectors as well as in other developing and developed countries where logistics development is at different stages.

This research provides insights into the current competency profile of logistics managers in Vietnam, which can assist senior management with human resources development in their firms. Specifically, it is essential that Vietnamese logistics firms focus on providing education and training opportunities, both internally and externally, to enhance the level of possession of all competencies whose gaps between perceived importance and possession are the largest across the groups, especially those in the Maintaining Sustainably and Growing quadrants of the IPM.

Firstly, this research introduces an improvised framework of logistics managers’ supply chain managerial competence adopting the contingency approach, contributing to expanding the body of knowledge on how the competency profile of logistics managers should be developed. Secondly, the IPM matrix of competencies introduced in this research can be used as both the conceptual and managerial tool to classify and prioritise competencies for various purposes, e.g. education, training and policy implementation based on the nexus of supply chain competence expectation and possession.

This study presents a systematic literature review (SLR) of the interdisciplinary literature on drones in last-mile delivery (LMD) to extrapolate pertinent insights from and into the logistics management field.

Rooting their analytical categories in the LMD literature, the authors performed a deductive, theory refinement SLR on 307 interdisciplinary journal articles published during 2015–2022 to integrate this emergent phenomenon into the field.

The authors derived the potentials, challenges and solutions of drone deliveries in relation to 12 LMD criteria dispersed across four stakeholder groups: senders, receivers, regulators and societies. Relationships between these criteria were also identified.

This review contributes to logistics management by offering a current, nuanced and multifaceted discussion of drones' potential to improve the LMD process together with the challenges and solutions involved.

The authors provide logistics managers with a holistic roadmap to help them make informed decisions about adopting drones in their delivery systems. Regulators and society members also gain insights into the prospects, requirements and repercussions of drone deliveries.

This is one of the first SLRs on drone applications in LMD from a logistics management perspective.

This study aims to analyse and understand customer sentiments and perceptions from neobanking mobile applications by using advanced machine learning and text mining techniques.

This study explores a substantial large data set of 330,399 user reviews available in the form of unstructured textual data from neobanking mobile applications. This study is aimed to extract meaningful patterns, topics, sentiments and themes from the data.

The results show that the success of neobanking mobile applications depends on user experience, security features, personalised services and technological innovation.

This study is limited to textual resources available in the public domain, and hence may not present the entire range of user experiences. Further studies should incorporate a wider range of data sources and investigate the impact of regional disparities on user preferences.

This study provides actionable ideas for neobanking service providers, enabling them to improve service quality and mobile application user experience by integrating customer input and the latest trends. These results can offer important inputs to the process of user interaction design, implementation of new features and customer support services.

This study uses text mining approaches to analyse neobanking mobile applications, which further contribute to the growing literature on digital banking and FinTech. This study offers a unique view of consumer behaviour and preferences in the realm of digital banking, which will add to the literature on the quality of service concerning mobile applications.