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Drawing on the work design growth model (WDGM), this paper aims to explore the relationship between job complexity and employee creativity through feedback-seeking and the moderating effect of team leaders with a growth creative mindset.

The authors used an online survey to test the hypotheses. Data was collected in three waves from 74 supervisors and 349 paired employees in China.

Job complexity had a positive association with employees’ feedback-seeking, which further linked to employee creativity. This indirect effect was stronger in work teams with leaders endorsing a growth creative mindset.

Job complexity has become prevalent in organizations today. Taking daily complexity as a resource for nurturing employee creativity may balance organizations’ costs on formal training and give them more initiatives in long-term development. In addition, as the growth creative mindset is relatively easy to assess and change, it may bring insights in terms of creativity development.

By empirically testing the behavioural mechanism of WDGM, the learning and development perspective of work design offers a new explanation of the relationship between job complexity and employee creativity. The authors further extend WDGM by identifying leaders’ growth creative mindset to be a boundary condition.

This chapter provides research results from a study of contemporary leadership approaches (i.e., paternalistic, charismatic, transformational, aesthetic, authentic, and pragmatic leadership) in eight Chinese organizations. Data were collected from case studies in four private-owned enterprises (POEs) and four state-owned enterprises (SOEs) through both interviews and questionnaires. The main purpose of this chapter is to provide contextual analysis of these findings by applying the concept of field from Bourdieu's sociology. This research contributes to the leadership literature by generalizing Western leadership theories to the Chinese context as well as by giving an insight into contemporary leadership approaches in modern Chinese business by deeply contextualizing these leadership behaviors.

This paper aims to propose and test a model examining the relationship of guanxi with new product performance and customer loyalty in the context of internationalizing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China. Social network theory and information processing theory provide the theoretical lenses for this research.

Guanxi with suppliers, distributors and customers is measured as a second-order construct consisting of ganqing, renqing, and xinren/xinyong. Research hypotheses are tested using survey data (n = 212) gathered in Anhui and Shandong Provinces. The data are analyzed using smart partial least squares technique.

The findings reinforce existing studies, which show that a locally based social network can be extended to the success of early-internationalizing SMEs. Results also suggest that the relationship between guanxi and customer loyalty is stronger when technical uncertainty is low and when market uncertainty is low rather than high.

The data were gathered from the point of view of the SMEs and may not accurately reflect the perspective of the foreign customer. The findings may not generalize beyond the regions surveyed. The study does not differentiate among the type of supply chain member, and the location of the supply chain member was not measured.

Although guanxi is typically viewed as being localized within a country, guanxi with suppliers, distributors and customers can provide information and resources needed for successful export products. Second, internationalizing SMEs must understand that even though guanxi has positive impact on new product performance which directly leads to customer loyalty only when uncertainty is low.

Although guanxi has been studied, there are a limited number of empirical studies of guanxi in a supply chain context and most focus on buyers’ guanxi with suppliers. The research on guanxi with customers and distributors is also limited. This research addresses this gap by focusing on guanxi with suppliers, distributors and customers.

This paper aims to clarify the corrosion inhibition effect of different corrosion inhibitor systems on the corrosion of metal pipe string by potassium persulfate plugging agent, so as to improve the injection capacity of polymer plugging well and reduce the corrosion of steel by oxidant plugging agent.

The effect of different corrosion inhibitors on the corrosion inhibition of N80 carbon steel in 1% potassium persulfate solution was studied by electrochemical experiment and weight loss experiment. The corrosion inhibition mechanism of potassium persulfate inhibitor and the synergistic mechanism among different inhibitors were analyzed.

The results indicated that when the temperature was 50°C, the inhibition effect of 0.2% sodium molybdate with a single inhibitor was the best at pH 8.5, and the inhibition rate was 70.17%. The inhibition efficiency of 0.2% sodium molybdate + 0.3% sodium silicate in the composite inhibition system can reach 94.38%. In the temperature range of 20°C–60°C, with the increase of system temperature, the inhibition effect of corrosion inhibitor will gradually weaken.

The corrosion inhibition system of N80 steel in potassium persulfate oxidant was mainly studied, and it clarified the influence of temperature and pH value on the corrosion inhibition effect, which provided guidance and suggestions for the corrosion inhibition of tubular string in the oilfield.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse analytically a control scheme in which the resonance frequencies of a rectangular plate is modified by applying a discrete lateral force proportional to the displacement of the plate measured at a single point.

An isotropic, elastic, rectangular, thin plate which is simply supported along all sides is actuated at point (x₂, y₂) by applying a force, and the displacement is measured at (x₁, y₁).

The main outcome is the full analytical solution for the controlled eigenfrequencies and mode shapes which allows a detailed study of the efficiency of the control method proposed.

The present study was made in the form of an exact analytical solution and demonstrates that it is possible to affect the eigenfrequencies and mode shapes of a plate by measuring the displacement and applying a pressure at discrete points on the plate.

Over the past several decades, there has been an increasing trend towards inter-city cooperation, which is an efficient policy option to deal with the challenges from globalization, regionalization and the externalities resulting from urban entrepreneurialism. Specific to China, the city governments, which mainly refer to prefecture-level and county-level governments, have also made many attempts to cooperate with respect to their local economic development and public affairs. Nevertheless, the results of these initiations to cooperate vary to a great extent. Based on a review of regional pollution governance in the Xiaoqing River area, tourism cooperation initiatives at Weishan Lake and transport integration between Jinan and Laiwu. The findings demonstrate that China's idiosyncratic institutional background has a significant impact on the shaping of inter-city cooperation. For the most part, leading small groups (LSGs) and their leadership property tend to determine the effectiveness of inter-city cooperation.

To examine the effect of the LSGs, we categorize them into three types, groups with strong leadership, weak leadership and self-forming leadership. Through reviewing regional pollution governance in the Xiaoqing River area, tourism cooperation initiatives at Weishan Lake and transport integration between Jinan and Laiwu, we try to probe the role of leading groups in the settlement of cross-administrative border issues.

Based on these three cases, the conclusion can be drawn that the leadership type of the LSG can exert an important influence on the efficiency of inter-city cooperation. If there is a leader with a higher administrative rank or authority, the cooperation can be quite efficient. Otherwise, the cooperative ending might be very negative. In terms of the operation principle, we can infer that even though the cities are always self-development oriented, the leader with higher authority or a strong coordinating capacity can convince and persuade the city leaders to overcome their self-centered behavior template and boost the cooperation to March on smoothly. Also, it means that the LSG is constrained by its personalistic characteristic. Key command derives from the person who chairs the LSG other than specific rules and norms. If the lead of the LSG leaves his position, the cooperation might just become paralyzed. From this point of view, the lack of legal basis remains to be the LSGs' significant deficiency and the future reform should attach more importance to the legalization of the LSGs so the operation of LSGs can be more standard and stable.

Many scholars have proposed their own theoretical models to explain the reason some cities successfully and effectively form cooperative relations, while the other cities do not. However, their models do not consider the idiosyncratic context of China or, how and to which extent LSGs can promote cooperation. Therefore, this paper seeks to probe which path in the context of China cities usually follows in the formation of joint efforts, and what role LSGs play in enabling cities to cooperate.

Nanotechnology (NT) advancements in personal protective textiles (PPT) or personal protective equipment (PPE) have alleviated spread and transmission of this highly contagious viral disease, and enabled enhancement of PPE, thereby fortifying antiviral behavior.

Review of a series of state of the art research papers on the subject matter.

This paper expounds on novel nanotechnological advancements in polymeric textile composites, emerging applications and fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

As a panacea to “public droplet prevention,” textiles have proven to be potentially effective as environmental droplet barriers (EDBs).

PPT in form of healthcare materials including surgical face masks (SFMs), gloves, goggles, respirators, gowns, uniforms, scrub-suits and other apparels play critical role in hindering the spreading of COVID-19 and other “oral-respiratory droplet contamination” both within and outside hospitals.

When used as double-layers, textiles display effectiveness as SFMs or surgical-fabrics, which reduces droplet transmission to <10 cm, within circumference of ∼0.3%.

NT advancements in textiles through nanoparticles, and sensor integration within textile materials have enhanced versatile sensory capabilities, robotics, flame retardancy, self-cleaning, electrical conductivity, flexibility and comfort, thereby availing it for health, medical, sporting, advanced engineering, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, military, automobile, food and agricultural applications, and more. Therefore, this paper expounds on recently emerging trends in nanotechnological influence in textiles for engineering and fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

This study aims to deem the new policy – talk for environmental protection – promoted in the second half of 2014 to be the exogenous event and adopts PSM and DID to verify whether and how the central government’s mechanism of supervision of environmental enforcement improves firm environmental performance and reveals the micro effect and working mechanism of the supervision of environmental enforcement.

The researchers first select reasonable control groups for target districts by means of PSM, then apply DID to compare corporations in the treatment group with those in the control group for the change of environmental performance before and after the talk for environmental protection, so as to evaluate the micro-level effect of such talks on corporate environmental performance; after that, the research examines the working mechanism of such talks on corporate environmental performance; then, it goes a step further to find out the environmental impact of such talks on corporations of different natures of property right.

It is found from the research that the talk for environmental protection will effectively improve the environmental performance of corporations in the target districts, and the improvement of environmental performance in state-owned corporations in the target districts will be more evident. However, such improvements, to a certain extent, are achieved by reducing the output value, and corporations do not increase environmental investments from a long-term perspective.

First, the targets of the talk for environmental protection are mainly principals of municipal governments, but the research expands the scope to the whole province due to the small sample at the municipal level. Despite evidences showing that such a pressure of supervision impacts the whole province, the results obtained based on the data at the municipal level will be accurate. Second, the research selects a relatively short research period. Third, due to the limited data on corporate environmental performance in China, the research selects only listed companies from key monitored and controlled firms by state.

First, for the central government, environmental policy making is not the end of its job; it shall also supervise local governments’ work at environmental governance and properly handle its relationship with local governments. Second, for the local governments, in the course of implementing environmental policies, they should not only strengthen law enforcement but keep the continuity of law enforcement to avoid moving law enforcement. Third, in the long run, corporations must start from the source of production to enhance environmental governance and make cleaner production, so as to keep boosting corporate competitiveness and their ability of fighting risks.

First, the research innovatively provides empirical evidence about the effect of China’s supervision of environmental enforcement. Previous studies on this topic are mostly theoretical discussions only, while this research makes the talk for environmental protection the exogenous event about the supervision of law enforcement and achieves breakthroughs in empirical studies of administrative enforcement supervision. Second, the research pushes the studies on the implementation effect of environmental policies from a medium level to a micro level. Third, the research achieves some breakthroughs in the data for measuring corporate environmental performance.

This study explores the role of industrial co-agglomeration and digital economy in influencing the green high-quality development of the Yellow River National Cultural Park to provide countermeasures and suggestions for promoting the whole-area high-quality development.

This study is based on panel data from 56 cities from 2010 to 2022. First, a Super-SBM model is built to evaluate green high-quality development. Secondly, location entropy is used to measure industrial co-agglomeration and the entropy weight method is used to measure the digital economy. Finally, the panel Tobit model is used to analyze the impact of industrial co-agglomeration and digital economy on the green high-quality development of Yellow River National Cultural Park.

This study found that (1) industrial co-agglomeration has a negative implication in green high-quality development, while the digital economy boosts green high-quality development; (2) industrial co-agglomeration is a less critical dependency on the level of development of the digital economy in influencing green high-quality development, while the facilitating effect of the digital economy is more dependent on industrial co-agglomeration and (3) the trend of slow growth in industrial co-agglomeration and digital economy development, with significant regional differences in green high-quality development.

Undeniably, our study has several limitations. Firstly, as the study area only includes some cities in individual provinces, such as Qinghai, this paper only analyzes at the city level, which does not better reflect the differences between provinces; secondly, this study only adopts one method to determine the digital economy. In the future, other methods can be explored to measure digital economy; finally, in addition to the main role of digital economy and industrial co-agglomeration, other factors may also affect the green high-quality development of YRNCP. Future research should introduce other variables to improve the theoretical framework.

First, it provides countermeasures and suggestions for promoting the green high-quality development of YRNCP. Second, it helps to implement the new development concept, cultivate the new quality productivity of culture and the tourism industry and promote the green high-quality development of YRNCP. Third, it provides references to improve the management measures and related policies of the YRNCP more accurately and efficiently. Fourth, it helps to build a new development pattern and has important practical significance in promoting the high-quality development of the whole basin, protecting and inheriting the Yellow River Culture and helping the Chinese-style modernization and development, which are of great practical significance.

The research is carried out from the new perspective of industrial co-agglomeration and digital economy, which provides the theoretical basis and reference for solving the problem of green high-quality development of YRNCP. Second, it broadens the research idea of green high-quality development. Third, it quantitatively analyzes the impact of industrial co-agglomeration and digital economy on the high-quality development of YRNCP, deepening the research on the green high-quality development of YRNCP. Fourth, it helps to enrich and improve the theoretical research related to the national cultural park development and has positive significance in promoting the management and innovation of the cultural industry and the construction of related disciplines.

The paper’s findings illustrate the functional relationship of the digital economy and industrial co-agglomeration with green high-quality development and propose countermeasures to facilitate the high-quality development of the Yellow River National Cultural Park.

Talent is a key resource for urban development, and building and disseminating urban brands have an important impact on attracting talent. This paper explores what kind of urban brand ecology (UBE) can effectively enhance urban talent attraction (UTA). We explore this question using a novel grey quantitative configuration analysis (GQCA) model.

To develop the GQCA model, grey clustering is combined with qualitative configuration analysis (QCA). We conducted comparative configuration analysis of UTA using fuzzy set QCA (fsQCA) and the proposed GQCA.

We find that the empirical results of fsQCA may contradict the facts, and that the proposed GQCA effectively solves this problem.

Based on the theory of UBE, we identify bottleneck factors for improving UTA at different stages. Seven configuration paths are described for cities to enhance UTA. Theoretically, this study expands the application boundaries of UBE.

The proposed GQCA effectively solves the problem of inconsistent analysis and facts caused by the use of a binary threshold by the fsQCA. In practical case studies, the GQCA significantly improves the reliability of configuration comparisons and the sensitivity of QCA to cases, demonstrating excellent research performance.