Ruijie Jin, Xiaoxian Jiang and Ao Shen
This study aims to examine the effect of independent directors on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) gap – a misalignment between internal and external CSR. More…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the effect of independent directors on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) gap – a misalignment between internal and external CSR. More specifically, the authors investigate how two types of independent directors (i.e. politically connected and foreign) affect a firm’s CSR gap in China.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use the fixed-effects regression model to analyze the panel dataset, which is conducted by a sample of Chinese publicly listed firms from 2008 to 2015.
Findings
The findings indicate that, on average, firms undertake more external than internal CSR actions. Importantly, the authors find that firms having politically connected independent directors on boards have a wider gap between their internal and external CSR. In contrast, firms having foreign independent directors on boards have a narrower gap between their internal and external CSR.
Practical implications
This study provides insights into the role of independent directors in increasing or decreasing the gap between a firm’s internal and external CSR actions, which offers important implications for policymakers and investors.
Originality/value
This study extends the literature on the causes of the CSR gap and deepens the theoretical understanding of the governance role of independent directors in China.
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Intuitionistic linguistic fuzzy information (ILFI), characterized by linguistic terms and intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs), can easily express the fuzzy information in the process…
Abstract
Purpose
Intuitionistic linguistic fuzzy information (ILFI), characterized by linguistic terms and intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs), can easily express the fuzzy information in the process of muticriteria decision making (MCDM) and muticriteria group decision making (MCGDM) problems. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of aggregation operators (AOs) and applications of ILFI.
Design/methodology/approach
First, some meaningful AOs for ILFI are summarized, and some extended MCDM approaches for intuitionistic uncertain linguistic variables (IULVs), such as extended TOPSIS, extended TODIM, extended VIKOR, are discussed. Then, the authors summarize and analyze the applications about the AOs of IULVs.
Findings
IULVs, characterized by linguistic terms and IFSs, can more detailed and comprehensively express the criteria values in the process of MCDM and MCGDM. Therefore, lots of researchers pay more and more attention to the MCDM or MCGDM methods with IULVs.
Originality/value
The authors summarize and analyze the applications about the AOs of IULVs Finally, the authors point out some possible directions for future research.
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Malar Hirudayaraj and Rose Baker
The purpose of this paper is to inform the preparation of HRD professionals by providing an empirical analysis of the knowledge, skills, and responsibilities employers expect in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to inform the preparation of HRD professionals by providing an empirical analysis of the knowledge, skills, and responsibilities employers expect in the workplace.
Design/methodology/approach
This study reports a qualitative content analysis of online HRD job postings.
Findings
Results of this content analysis indicated that the most recent employer expectations for HRD practitioners as reflected in HRD-related job postings for knowledge and responsibilities were instructional design, training delivery, learning management systems, and learning technologies. The outcomes reinforced that employers specifically expect education technology-based knowledge and skills.
Research limitations/implications
The job postings included in the study were all collected from one source, the Association for Talent Development job site.
Practical implications
Educational programs can use these findings to inform curricular decisions related to knowledge and skills to be taught and practiced during the preparation of L&D practitioners and HRD professionals.
Originality/value
This paper analyzes online HRD job postings to understand what knowledge and skills employers expected from L&D practitioners and HRD professionals.
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Bing Liu, Hongyao Shen, Rongxin Deng, Zeyu Zhou, Jia’ao Jin and Jianzhong Fu
Additive manufacturing based on arc welding is a fast and effective way to fabricate complex and irregular metal workpieces. Thin-wall metal structures are widely used in the…
Abstract
Purpose
Additive manufacturing based on arc welding is a fast and effective way to fabricate complex and irregular metal workpieces. Thin-wall metal structures are widely used in the industry. However, it is difficult to realize support-free freeform thin-wall structures. This paper aims to propose a new method of non-supporting thin-wall structure (NSTWS) manufacturing by gas metal arc welding (GMAW) with the help of a multi-degree of freedom robot arm.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses the geodesic distance on the triangular mesh to build a scalar field, and then the equidistant iso-polylines are obtained, which are used as welding paths for thin-wall structures. Focusing on the possible problems of interference and the violent variation of the printing directions, this paper proposes two types of methods to partition the model mesh and generate new printable iso-polylines on the split meshes.
Findings
It is found that irregular thin-wall models such as an elbow, a vase or a transition structure can be deposited without any support and with a good surface quality after applying the methods.
Originality/value
The experiments producing irregular models illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the methods to fabricate NSTWSs, which could provide guidance to some industrial applications.
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Xiaoling Chen, Caiyun Shen and Wenying Zheng
Circular economy firms, unlike those in a linear economy, encounter significant challenges due to the nature of nonstandardized products, such as asymmetric information on product…
Abstract
Purpose
Circular economy firms, unlike those in a linear economy, encounter significant challenges due to the nature of nonstandardized products, such as asymmetric information on product specifications and highly dispersed supply and demand. Consequently, achieving large-scale operations becomes inherently difficult for them. However, when digital platform-based circular firms adopt diversified business models, their value creation has the potential to achieve significant scale. This study aims to answer “How do digital platform-based circular firms scale up value creation through business model diversification?”.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use a qualitative case study design with a longitudinal (2011–2023) analysis of the various business models developed by ATRenew, a leading firm in the Chinese preowned electronics industry.
Findings
The authors find that the recycling business model can act as a “cornerstone” business model for a circular firm to integrate the business model portfolio by leveraging the most synergies (or complementarities) with other business models. Besides, digital platform-based circular firms can effectively scale up value creation by leveraging capability complementary on the supply side, through establishing industrial infrastructure shared with the platform ecosystem; and by leveraging customer complementary on the demand side, through activating the dual role played by platform users as suppliers and consumers.
Originality/value
The authors contribute to the circular business models literature with three mechanisms to scale up circular value creation through business model diversification and advance a set of propositions to be tested in future research. This also has important practical implications for circular economy platform businesses.
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Muhammad Qiyas, Saleem Abdullah and Muhammad Naeem
The aim of this research is to establish a new type of aggregation operator based on Hamacher operational law of spherical uncertain linguistic numbers (SULNs).
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this research is to establish a new type of aggregation operator based on Hamacher operational law of spherical uncertain linguistic numbers (SULNs).
Design/methodology/approach
First, the authors define spherical uncertain linguistic sets and develop some operational laws of SULNs. Furthermore, the authors extended these operational laws to the aggregation operator and developed spherical uncertain linguistic Hamacher averaging and geometric aggregation operators.
Findings
The authors were limited in achieving a consistent opinion on the fusion in group decision-making problem with the SULN information.
Originality/value
In order to give an application of the introduced operators, the authors first constrict a system of multi-attribute decision-making algorithm.
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This paper aims to address the importance of behavioural finance issues among real investors. It analyses whether private investors are susceptible to extrapolation bias and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to address the importance of behavioural finance issues among real investors. It analyses whether private investors are susceptible to extrapolation bias and whether this bias affects market prices.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative coding of message board posts facilitates the construction of sentiment proxies. Using linear techniques, it is tested whether after-hours sentiment is positively predicted by daily share return and whether daily share return exhibits positive autocorrelation.
Findings
Private investors are impaired by extrapolation bias, while market prices remain unaffected. Probably, sophisticated professional investors benefit by offsetting the irrational private investor transactions.
Research limitations/implications
As the sample of German blue-chip banks is small and covers a period during the Eurozone crisis, the findings should be generalised with caution. Future research might use a different sample and explore whether non-crisis periods provide comparable results.
Practical implications
Investors should not take for granted the neoclassical assumption that all market participants always act rationally and according to self-interest.
Social implications
Irrespective of whether market prices are efficient, a level playing field between private and professional investors is necessary. Otherwise, confidence in the financial marketplace is not guaranteed and society may incur welfare losses.
Originality/value
The approach of extracting sentiment from a German share message board through qualitative content analysis (QCA) is unique for analysing extrapolation bias. This paper is valuable in drawing attention to the importance of rational investment behaviour among private investors.
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This chapter presents systematic evidence on the persistent power of guanxi, the Chinese phrase for informal social relations and networks, in transitional China. I draw heavily…
Abstract
This chapter presents systematic evidence on the persistent power of guanxi, the Chinese phrase for informal social relations and networks, in transitional China. I draw heavily on my previous publications reporting findings from a series of probability sample surveys of the Job-Search Network (thereafter JSNET) project in Chinese cities, and job histories of the survey respondents combined cover a span of 37 years from 1978, the beginning year of China's market-oriented reforms, to 2014, the year of last JSNET survey completed.
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Yu Gong, Yanhong Yao and Ao Zan
This study aims to investigate the complex relationship between digitalization capability (DC) and radical innovation performance (RIP). In particular, this study sheds new light…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the complex relationship between digitalization capability (DC) and radical innovation performance (RIP). In particular, this study sheds new light on the results of previous studies on the effects of DC on firm innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors obtained questionnaire data from 271 IT managers of randomly selected high-tech Chinese firms. The data was used to empirically test the proposed hypotheses using hierarchical regression analysis.
Findings
The findings of this study reveal that DC has an inverted U-shaped effect on RIP. Knowledge accumulation (KA) has a partial mediating effect on the DC–RIP link. Knowledge integration capability (KIC) was found to moderate the DC–RIP relationship: the higher a firm’s KIC, the flatter the DC–RIP curve. Moreover, there is empirical evidence of the shape-flip phenomenon of the DC–RIP curve: when KIC > 1.82, the DC–RIP relationship is no longer an inverted U-shaped but presents as a U-shaped curve.
Research limitations/implications
This study explores the DC–RIP relationship from the perspective of knowledge management, deepens the research scope of digitalization and lays the foundation for subsequent research.
Originality/value
This study provides potential explanations for contradictory views of the effect of DC on innovation in the existing literature by revealing the nonlinear relationship of DC and RIP and the important roles of KA and KIC in that relationship. The new insights into the role of KIC as a threshold for the DC–RIP link provide a direction for firms to control the pace of digital transformation.