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The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct and interaction effects of relational governance and two control mechanisms, output control and process control in the context of international exchange relationships. Cross-border exchange relationships receive growing attention in the literature. Yet extant research has mainly examined single governance mechanisms. Among the few studies that investigate the interaction effects of relational governance and control mechanisms, some believe that the two mechanisms have conflicting effects, whereas others argue that they are complementary in nature.

Based on a sample of 184 Chinese export ventures, the empirical paper adopts the hierarchical moderated multiple regression approach.

The authors find that relational governance contributes positively to export performance, while output control leads negatively to export performance. The findings further suggest that output control complements relational governance to enhance export performance when combined. However, process control and relational governance substitute each other and reduce effectiveness when used simultaneously.

The study sheds new light on the ongoing debate about whether control mechanisms substitute or complement relational governance.

The study is novel in addressing the issue of how relational governance interacts differently with two control mechanisms in the international exchange relationships.

Drawing on institutional complexity, this study aims to explore the interaction effect of formal and informal institutional forces on the adoption of green supplier collaboration (GSC) practices by Chinese manufacturing firms.

The paper hypothesises that the effect of the formal institutional forces on GSC in China is influenced by an informal institutional variable, guanxi, which is the interpersonal relationship between employees of the supplier and the manufacturer. To test the conceptual framework, hierarchical moderated regression analyses are conducted using multi-respondent data from 408 randomly sampled manufacturing companies in China.

Guanxi has a double-edged sword effect on the adoption of GSC practices. Specifically, guanxi reduces the negative impact of the perceived costs and the complexity of regulations on the adoption of GSC practices, but it also weakens the positive effect of suppliers’ advice and community pressures on the adoption of GSC practices.

Results contribute to supply chain management literature by offering novel theoretical and empirical insights on the Chinese institutional environment governed by both formal and informal institutional variables.

Considering guanxi’s double-edged sword effect on the adoption of GSC, manufacturing companies are advised to carefully leverage their guanxi to maintain an institutional and contingent view of the environmental consequences in China.

This study empirically examines the effect of formal and informal institutional environments on the adoption of GSC practices in emerging economies.

This study aims to examine the mediating role of trainer preparation in the effect employee trainer self-efficacy has on trainer performance.

Using a census, data was collected from internal employee trainers in two universities in Ghana. In testing the hypotheses, a structural equation modelling based on 10,000 bootstrap samples was used, and the BCa confidence intervals were used to establish the significance of the hypotheses.

This study revealed trainer preparation as a complementary partial mediator in the effect trainee engagement self-efficacy and instruction self-efficacy had on trainer performance. In addition, the importance–performance map analyses demonstrated that the factor with the most importance in the model was instruction self-efficacy, yet it was not the highest-performing factor.

This study highlights the mediating role played by preparation in the effect of trainer self-efficacy on trainer performance. In addition, it adds to the dearth of studies that focus on employee trainers while at the same time using data from the trainers themselves.

Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems account for approximately half of all energy usage in the operational phase of a building's lifecycle. The disproportionate amount of energy usage in HVAC systems against other utilities within buildings has proved a huge cause for alarm, as this practice contributes significantly to global warming and climate change. This paper reviews the status and current trends of energy consumption associated with HVAC systems with the aim of interrogating energy efficiency practices for improving HVAC systems' consumption in buildings in the context of developing countries.

The study relied predominantly on secondary data by analysing the relevant body of literature and proposing conceptual insights regarding best practices for improving the energy efficiency of HVAC systems in buildings. The systematic review of the literature (SLR) was aided by the PRISMA guiding principle. Content analysis technique was adopted to examine germane scholarly articles and finally grouped them into themes.

Based on the SLR, measures for enhancing the energy efficiency of HVAC systems in buildings were classified based on economic considerations ranging from low-cost measures such as the cost of tuning the system, installing zonal control systems, adopting building integrated greenery systems and passive solar designs to major approaches such as HVAC smart technologies for energy management which have multi-year pay-back periods. Further, it was established that practices to improve energy efficiency in buildings range from integrated greening system into buildings to HVAC system which are human-centred and controlled to meet human modalities.

There is a need to incorporate these energy efficiency practices into building regulations or codes so that built environment professionals would have a framework within which to design their buildings to be energy efficient. This energy efficient solution may serve as a prerequisite for newly constructed buildings.

To this end, the authors develop an integrated optimization conceptual framework mimicking energy efficiency options that may complement HVAC systems operations in buildings.

Based on a dyadic perspective, the purpose of this paper is to include the contributions of employee and customer in a service process and to examine the underlying mechanism of customer organization socialization on service performance.

The authors used a unique survey data pertaining to the service industry. The authors collected their data from multiple sources (customers, front-line employees and these employees' managers) in the divisions of a large service organization – Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China. The authors adopted hierarchical regression moderated path analysis approach to examine our moderated mediation model.

The authors find that both the quality of customer service and the quality of employee service play as moderators in the relationship between customer organization socialization and service performance. And quality of customer service moderates the relationship between customer organization socialization and quality of employee service.

The literature has focused primarily on service performance improvement based on the dyadic perspective of customer and employee. The research develops a moderated mediation model and contributes to the literature by empirically examining customer organization socialization.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe challenges to ethnic minorities in the UK. While the experiences of migrants are both complex and varied depending on individuals' social class, race, cultural proximity to the host country and acculturation levels, more in-depth studies are necessary to fully understand how COVID-19 affects specific migrant groups and their health. Taiwanese migrants were selected because they are an understudied group. Also, there were widespread differences in pandemic management between the UK and Taiwan, making this group an ideal case for understanding how their acculturation journey can be disrupted by a crisis.

Qualitative data were collected at two different time points, at the start of the UK pandemic (March/April 2020) and six months on (October/November 2020), to explore migrant coping experiences over time. Theoretically, the authors apply acculturation theory through the lens of coping, while discussing health-consumption practices, as empirical evidence.

Before the outbreak of the pandemic, participants worked hard to achieve high levels of integration in the UK. The pandemic changed this; participants faced unexpected changes in the UK’s sociocultural structures. They were forced to exercise the layered and complex “coping with coping” in a hostile host environment that signalled their new marginalised status. They faced impossible choices, from catching a life-threatening disease to being seen as overly cautious. Such experience, over time, challenged their integration to the host country, resulting in a loss of faith in the UK’s health system, consequently increasing separation from the host culture and society.

It is important to note that the Taiwanese sample recruited through Facebook community groups is biased and has a high level of homogeneity. These participants were well-integrated, middle-class migrants who were highly educated, relatively resourceful and active on social media. More studies are needed to fully understand the impact on well-being and acculturation of migrants from different cultural, contextual and social backgrounds. This being the case, the authors can speculate that migrants with less resource are likely to have found the pandemic experience even more challenging. More studies are needed to fully understand migrant experience from different backgrounds.

Public health policymakers are advised to dedicate more resources to understand migrants' experiences in the host country. In particular, this paper has shown how separation, especially if embraced temporarily, is not necessarily a negative outcome to be corrected with specific policies. It can be strategically adopted by migrants as a way of defending their health and well-being from an increasingly hostile environment. Migrants' home country experience provides vicarious learning opportunities to acquire good practices. Their voices should be encouraged rather than in favour of a surprising orthodox and rather singular approach in the discussion of public health management.

The paper has clear public health policy implications. Firstly, public health policymakers are advised to dedicate more resources to understand migrants' experiences in the host country. Acknowledging migrants' voice is a critical first step to contribute to the development of a fair and inclusive society. Secondly, to retain skilful migrants and avoid a future brain-drain, policymakers are advised to advance existing infrastructure to provide more incentives to support and retain migrant talents in the post-pandemic recovery phase.

This paper reveals how a group of previously well-integrated migrants had to exercise “coping with coping” during the COVID crisis. This experience, over time, challenged their integration to the host country, resulting in a loss of faith in the UK’s health system, consequently increasing separation from the host culture and society. It contributes to the understanding of acculturation by showing how a such crisis can significantly disrupt migrants' acculturation journey, challenging them to re-acculturate and reconsider their identity stance. It shows how separation was indeed a good option for migrants for protecting their well-being from a newly hostile host environment.

This study aims to examine the relationship between renqing and purchase intentions and the mechanism of its impact in the Chinese business-to-business (B2B) context.

Renqing in China has played an important role in business relationships and has been receiving increased attention in both practice and theory. However, little is known about whether it can influence purchase intentions in a rational B2B condition. This research aims to examine the relationship between renqing and purchase intentions and the mechanism of its impact in the Chinese B2B context. Based on a survey of 1,010 industry buyers from 468 Chinese downstream buyer companies, the empirical findings indicate a positive relationship between renqing and purchase intentions and the mediating role of long-term orientation (LTO) for increasing purchase intentions. In addition, this study also finds that product involvement (PI) has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between renqing and purchase intentions, which means that renqing has a big positive effect on purchase intentions in low PI conditions. The results highlight several implications for B2B companies that sell products to Chinese enterprises.

The empirical findings indicate a positive relationship between renqing and purchase intentions and the mediating role of LTO for increasing purchase intentions. In addition, this study also finds that PI has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between renqing and purchase intentions, which means that renqing has a big positive effect on purchase intentions in low PI conditions.

First of all, by answering the research question, this study shows that renqing has a positive effect on purchase intentions in Chinese B2B context. Second, this study elucidates the influence mechanism of renqing on purchase intention and identifies the mediating effect of LTO and the moderating effect of PI.

The purpose of this study is determination of cadmium using silver-gold bimetallic nanoparticles (Ag-Au BMNPs) and an aptamer modified glassy carbon electrode.

The maximum response of modified electrode was obtained with, 50 mV pulse amplitude, 20 mV/s scan rate in phosphate buffer of pH 4.0. Ag-Au BMNPs, as the mediators improved electron transmit during the entire electron transfer process and the aptasensor response. Herein, the authors used aptamer as the capture probe to prepare an aptasensor with enhanced stability.

The proposed aptasensor exhibited a wide linearity to cadmium in the range of 0.001–0.100 µg/L with a low detection limit of 0.005×10⁻³ µg/L. The glassy carbon electrodes with Ag-Au BMNPs showed a lower detection limit.

This aptasensor has good reproducibility, stability and repeatability and is cost-effective to regenerate. The specificity and selectivity of the novel modified electrode is tested in the presence of other interfering metal ions such as Fe²⁺, Mn²⁺, Mg²⁺, Sb³⁺ and Bi³⁺. The aptasensor shows 10 times more sensitivity and selectivity for Cd²⁺ ions.

This study aims to examine how implicit distance (cognitive and social) impacts supply chain capabilities, and the roles of information technology (IT) utilization and supply chain flexibility in this process.

The authors designed a conceptual model including the implicit distance, supply chain flexibility, supply chain capability and IT utilization and verified the relationships among variables through a survey that collected data from 104 manufacturing enterprises in China.

The results show that cognitive and social distances positively and negatively affect supply chain flexibility, respectively. Furthermore, IT utilization strengthens the positive effect of cognitive distance and the negative effect of social distance on supply chain flexibility. Additionally, supply chain flexibility has a positive effect on supply chain capability and mediates the effects of cognitive and social distances on supply chain capability.

Enterprises should prioritize cooperation with different types of partners with whom the enterprises have established good collaborative working experiences. Moreover, if enterprises cooperate with new partners, enterprises should communicate and handle things face to face instead of frequently utilizing IT.

This study links the implicit distance between enterprises with supply chain capability and newly applies social network theory to explain the mechanism. Further, the authors' data confirm the moderating role of IT utilization in this process, supplementing the research on implicit distance. Moreover, this study employs dynamic capability theory to better understand how firms can improve supply chain capabilities.