Search results

Via dialectical perspective and configurational approach, this paper aims to explore the relationship between female representation and long-term firm performance when combined with environmental conditions.

For necessary condition analysis and time-series qualitative comparative analysis, a sample of 614 listed Chinese manufacturing firms between 2017 and 2020 was obtained.

The inclusion of female executives can aid firms in their long-term performance and resilience. Seven configurations, categorized as chimpanzee type, African elephant type and queen bee type, can prompt long-term firm performance. Chimpanzee-type configuration is the most prevalent path for firms to achieve long-term performance.

Firms could reconsider the role of female executives in achieving long-term success, assist in breaking the invisible “glass ceiling” and “glass cliff,” and refrain from viewing them as mere “tokens.” Policymakers can improve female representation by institutionally guaranteeing women’s opportunities for empowerment, education and promotion.

This study presents evidence for the legitimacy of female representation by demonstrating the intricate causality between female representation and firm performance beyond the controversy between business ethics and coercive policy. This paper also builds upon and extends the literature on female representation and provides alternative ways to improve female representation by combining female executives’ percentages, professionalism and positions.

The article aims to investigate how washing practices focused on appeasing sceptics of diversity work in for-profit organizations play out in corporate online communication of diversity and inclusion efforts, and how these enable communication to a wide audience that includes social equity advocates.

Online corporate communication data of diversity and inclusion themes were compiled from the websites of eight Swedish-based multinational corporations. The data included content from the companies’ official websites and annual reports and sustainability reports as well as diversity and inclusion-themed blog posts. A thematic analysis was conducted on the website content.

The study showcases how tensions between conflicting external demands are navigated by keeping the communication open to several interpretations and thereby achieving multivocality. In the studied corporate texts on diversity and inclusion, this is achieved by alternating between elements catering to a business case audience and those that appeal to a social justice audience, with some procedures managing to appease both audiences at the same time.

The article complements previously described forms of washing by introducing an additional type of washing – business case washing – an articulation of the business case rhetoric that characterizes the diversity management discourse. While much has been written about washing to satisfy advocates of social change and equity, washing to appease shareholders and boardroom members, who are focused on profit and economic growth, has received less attention. The article suggests that online corporate communication on diversity and inclusion, by appeasing diverse audiences, can be seen as aspirational talk.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized teaching and learning methods in higher education, especially in English language teaching and learning. This chapter contributes to the existing knowledge by exploring how AI has developed within the framework of teaching and learning of English, highlighting the challenges, dangers, and moral issues associated with its application. The typical classroom environment has significantly changed because of the integration of AI-powered tools and platforms in English instruction. Chatbots, automated grading systems, and language learning apps driven by AI have streamlined language education, increasing its effectiveness and accessibility. But these benefits accompany a variety of challenges and worries. Ethical concerns about data privacy, algorithmic biases, and the depersonalization of education arise as AI becomes more deeply ingrained in educational methods. Reliance on AI may inadvertently exacerbate educational disparities as long as learners' access to technology and its advantages remain unequal. In addition, significant thought must be given to the ethical ramifications of AI-generated content as well as the possible loss of human connection in language learning settings. This chapter examines these dangers and challenges and makes the case for a well-rounded strategy that maximizes AI's benefits while minimizing any potential downsides. Together, educators and legislators need to create moral guidelines that balance the potential of AI with human-centered learning experiences. To ensure responsible and fair AI integration and promote an inclusive learning environment that prioritizes students' holistic development while exploiting technology breakthroughs, comprehensive assessment of the associated obstacles, risks, and ethical issues is necessary.

In smart cities striving for innovation, development, and prosperity, hydrogen offers a promising path for decarbonization. However, its effective integration into the evolving energy landscape requires understanding regional intricacies and identifying areas for improvement. This chapter examines hydrogen transport from production to utilization, evaluating technologies’ pros, cons, and process equations and using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) tool to assess these technologies based on multiple criteria. It also explores barriers and opportunities in hydrogen transport within the 21st-century energy transition, providing insights for overcoming challenges. Evaluation criteria for hydrogen transport technologies were ranked by relative importance, with energy efficiency topping the list, followed by energy density, infrastructure requirements, cost, range, and flexibility. Safety, technological maturity, scalability, and compatibility with existing infrastructure received lower weights. Hydrogen transport technologies were categorized into three performance levels: low, medium, and high. Hydrogen tube trailers ranked lowest, while chemical hydrides, hydrail, liquid organic hydrogen carriers, hydrogen pipelines, and hydrogen blending exhibited moderate performance. Compressed hydrogen gas, liquid hydrogen, ammonia carriers, and hydrogen fueling stations demonstrated the highest performance. The proposed framework is crucial for next-gen smart cities, cutting emissions, boosting growth, and speeding up development with a strong hydrogen infrastructure. This makes the region a sustainable tech leader, improving air quality and well-being. Aligned with Gulf Region goals, it is key for smart cities. Policymakers, industries, and researchers can use these insights to overcome barriers and seize hydrogen transport tech opportunities.

The aging and deterioration of engineering building structures present significant risks to both life and property. Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors, acclaimed for their outstanding reusability, compact form factor, lightweight construction, heightened sensitivity, immunity to electromagnetic interference and exceptional precision, are increasingly being adopted for structural health monitoring in engineering buildings. This research paper aims to evaluate the current challenges faced by FBG sensors in the engineering building industry. It also anticipates future advancements and trends in their development within this field.

This study centers on five pivotal sectors within the field of structural engineering: bridges, tunnels, pipelines, highways and housing construction. The research delves into the challenges encountered and synthesizes the prospective advancements in each of these areas.

The exceptional performance of FBG sensors provides an ideal solution for comprehensive monitoring of potential structural damages, deformations and settlements in engineering buildings. However, FBG sensors are challenged by issues such as limited monitoring accuracy, underdeveloped packaging techniques, intricate and time-intensive embedding processes, low survival rates and an indeterminate lifespan.

This introduces an entirely novel perspective. Addressing the current limitations of FBG sensors, this paper envisions their future evolution. FBG sensors are anticipated to advance into sophisticated multi-layer fiber optic sensing networks, each layer encompassing numerous channels. Data integration technologies will consolidate the acquired information, while big data analytics will identify intricate correlations within the datasets. Concurrently, the combination of finite element modeling and neural networks will enable a comprehensive simulation of the adaptability and longevity of FBG sensors in their operational environments.

Based on affective events theory, this research attempted to investigate how negative gossip about organizational change drives employees to experience negative emotions and direct their aggression toward customers.

We conducted a scenario-based experiment (Study 1) and a multiwave field survey (Study 2) to test our hypotheses.

The results show that (1) negative emotions mediate the relationship between change-related negative gossip and displaced aggression toward customers; (2) perceived organizational constraints strengthen the relationship between change-related negative gossip and negative emotions; (3) future work self-salience weakens the relationship between change-related negative gossip and negative emotions; and (4) change-related negative gossip has a strengthened (weakened) indirect effect on displaced aggression via negative emotions when employees have high perceived organizational constraints (future work self-salience).

The study expands research on organizational change and displaced aggression and provides practical implications for managing organizational change.

The purpose of this research paper is to explore the determinants of patients' service choices between telephone consultation and text consultation in online health communities (OHCs).

This study utilized an empirical model based on the elaboration likelihood model and examined the effect of information, regarding service quality (the central route) and service price (the peripheral route), using online health consultation data from one of the largest OHCs in China.

The logistic regression results indicated that both physician- and patient-generated information can influence the patients' service choices; service price signals will lead patients to cheaper options. However, individual motivations, disease risk and consulting experience change a patients' information processing regarding central and peripheral cues.

Previous researchers have investigated the mechanism of patient behavior in OHCs; however, the researchers have not focused on the patients' choices regarding the multiple health services provided in OHCs. The findings of this study have theoretical and practical implications for future researchers, OHC designers and physicians.

In recent decades, advancements in biosensors technology have made fluorescent biosensor pivotal for biomolecular recognition. This paper aims to provide an in-depth analysis of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) fluorescent biosensor detection technology for identifying Escherichia coli (E. coli), setting the stage for future developments in the field.

The review of literature on PCR fluorescent biosensor detection technology for E. coli over the past decades includes discussions on traditional biological fluorescent detection, quantitative PCR fluorescent detection and digital fluorescent detection technology.

Advancements in fluorescent biosensor technology enable precise measurement of fluorescent signals, and when integrated with microfluidic technology, produce compact, reagent-efficient digital sensor devices.

This paper provides a comprehensive review of recent fluorescent detection technology for pathogenic E. coli, assessing method efficiencies and offering insights to advance the field.

The rapid growth of professional esports has highlighted the lack of a universally recognised governing body to standardise operations and competition rules. This absence presents many challenges. A key concern is the well-being of professional esports players (e-pro-players), who often suffer from exhaustion. This study aims to examine the factors contributing to exhaustion among e-pro-players.

Using the conservation of resources theory, we developed a framework to explain the factors leading to e-pro-players’ exhaustion and the conditions under which it occurs. We tested this framework with 126 responses in a dyadic survey from e-pro-players and their coaches in China. Additionally, we gathered qualitative insights from 50 interviews with esports stakeholders to provide more context for our quantitative findings.

Our study found that e-pro-players’ intrinsic motivation to engage in training reduces their exhaustion, while their struggle to cope with uncertainty in esports environments (intolerance of uncertainty) increases it. The effect of intrinsic motivation is weaker for those who believe their talent for playing esports is fixed (entity belief) but stronger for those with high relational identification with their coaches. Additionally, the link between uncertainty intolerance and exhaustion is stronger in players with strong entity beliefs.

Our study sheds light on the factors contributing to e-pro-players’ exhaustion within the partially regulated professional esports environment, a phenomenon that significantly influences their overall well-being. Through the identification and examination of these factors and the conditions under which they affect exhaustion, we deepen the understanding of the drivers of exhaustion for e-pro-players who operate in an industry lacking standardised regulations.

This study aims to contribute to understandings of how international universities in China construct institutional narratives to attract Chinese students by leveraging themes of global citizenship and international mobility.

Qualitative analysis of web and other university materials, and mixed-method analysis of social media (WeChat) to identify and quantify recurring themes in the universities’ student-facing presentation.

Despite differing operational models, both universities emphasize Western education’s prestige and global citizenship, primarily appealing to affluent families and positioning themselves as pathways to international postgraduate study.

The research provides new insights into the student recruitment strategies of international universities in China, contributing to the broader understanding of higher education internationalization in non-Western contexts.