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1 – 10 of over 26000Geng Huang, Xi Lin and Ling-Yun He
Some existing studies have begun to discuss how trade will change the environment from a country or province perspective. However, so far, only a limited number of studies have…
Abstract
Purpose
Some existing studies have begun to discuss how trade will change the environment from a country or province perspective. However, so far, only a limited number of studies have provided evidence at the product level. This study aims to investigate the environmental impacts of trade at the product level.
Design/methodology/approach
The effects of importing intermediates and capital inputs on energy performance are examined using theoretical analysis. Empirical analyses are conducted using data on product trade, and the effects of importing intermediate inputs and capital inputs on energy efficiency are identified using a Propensity Score Matching-Difference in Difference (PSM-DID) estimation.
Findings
The results demonstrate that importing intermediates and capital inputs effectively enhance energy efficiency. Importing these inputs from foreign markets leads to increased productivity and ultimately improves energy performance.
Originality/value
This research provides new evidence on the relationship between importing and energy use at the product trade level. It offers insights into enterprise behaviors regarding importing intermediates and capital inputs, contributing to a deeper understanding of the environmental effects of trade. Additionally, a micro-theoretical model is developed to examine the impacts of imports on energy efficiency, complementing existing literature with theoretical insights.
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Huili Tang, Steven J. Hite, Julie M. Hite, David McKay Boren and E. Vance Randall
The purpose of this ontologically qualitative research study was to (a) explore student narratives regarding their educational experiences in at-home internationalization…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this ontologically qualitative research study was to (a) explore student narratives regarding their educational experiences in at-home internationalization programs; (b) provide an in-depth narrative analysis of student learning challenges and achievements; and (c) add valuable research-based knowledge of student-described experiences for use by program administrators.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants were selected with a form of four-stage non-proportional stratified sampling. 29 participants were interviewed using a basic demographic questionnaire and an episodic interview protocol. Data were analyzed in QSR NVivo software through open, axial, and selective coding stages under the framework of grounded theory.
Findings
The findings focus on student-identified links between the challenges they encountered and their achievements. In addition, student performance level and gender were associated with the challenges and achievements reported by students. In understanding the results, the student-learning concepts found in the learned optimism, growth mindset, grit and expectancy theory approaches provide potentially fruitful insights.
Originality/value
The findings of this research have instructive implications for program administrators regarding how student challenges can be strategically chosen and shaped to generate specific, positive student achievements.
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Dong Phong Nguyen, Margaret Vickers, Thi Minh Chau Ly and Mai Dong Tran
The purpose of this paper is to increase knowledge of the key drivers, and challenges, of the internationalization of Higher Education (HE), especially in the transitioning…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to increase knowledge of the key drivers, and challenges, of the internationalization of Higher Education (HE), especially in the transitioning economy of Vietnam.
Design/methodology/approach
An exploratory qualitative research design used semi-structured interviews. Nine senior institutional leaders from five Vietnamese universities were interviewed. Thematic analysis, informed by the literature, was undertaken on English-translated transcripts.
Findings
The findings shared senior HE leader perspectives on how internationalization of HE in Vietnam was being conceptualized and operationalized, as well as insights as to how these processes might be improved. Further research to monitor the success of internationalization processes in Vietnam, and beyond, is recommended.
Research limitations/implications
This was an exploratory qualitative study including nine interviews with senior HE leaders from Vietnamese Universities. Exploratory findings only are shared.
Originality/value
No previous studies exploring internationalization of HE in Vietnam have been located. Vietnam is a nation in economic transition from a state-based to market-driven economy, and is different culturally, economically and socially, to its Asian neighbors. Internationalizing HE is considered essential to the global integration and development of Vietnam.
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Linlin Wang, Zhaofang Chu, Wan Jiang and Yifan Xu
This study aims to build on equity theory to assess the effect of chief executive officer (CEO) underpayment on the accumulation of firm-specific knowledge, accounting for the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to build on equity theory to assess the effect of chief executive officer (CEO) underpayment on the accumulation of firm-specific knowledge, accounting for the moderating effects of the CEO compensation gap and the clarity of the board’s informal hierarchy.
Design/methodology/approach
This study starts with all firms listed in the Execucomp database for the period 1992 to 2006. Then, all data sources are merged and entries with missing information are excluded. The final data set used for model estimations includes 1,152 firm-year observations. The command xtreg in Stata 12 with the fixed-effect option (fe) is used to estimate the relationship between CEO underpayment and firm-specific knowledge.
Findings
This study proposed and examined the role of CEO underpayment in discouraging CEO willingness to invest firm-specific human capital and, accordingly, to adopt a strategy of accumulating lower levels of firm-specific knowledge assets. The empirical analyses strongly support this argument. Moreover, CEO compensation gaps and the informal hierarchy of boards negatively moderated this relationship. That is, CEO underpayment had a weaker negative effect on firm-specific knowledge when the CEO compensation gap and the clarity of the board’s informal hierarchy were high.
Originality/value
Prior studies from the knowledge-based perspective have focused on the importance of firm-specific knowledge in enabling a firm to achieve superior financial performance. However, relatively little attention has been paid to CEOs’ willingness to accumulate firm-specific knowledge. The present study contributes to the knowledge-based view of the firm. This study integrates equity theory with the knowledge-based view of the firm by highlighting how unfair compensation of CEOs may discourage them to fully realize a firm’s potential to generate specific knowledge. By incorporating the fairness issue of CEO compensation into the knowledge-based view, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the origins of firm-specific knowledge.
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Lingyan Hu, Ning Jiang, He Huang and Yan Liu
Despite abundant research on the negative effect of gender stereotypes on female leaders, it remains unclear whether leader competence perceived by the subordinates could overcome…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite abundant research on the negative effect of gender stereotypes on female leaders, it remains unclear whether leader competence perceived by the subordinates could overcome this backlash effect. Drawing on expectation states theory and expectancy violation theory, the authors investigate how the interaction among leaders' gender roles, leader sex and subordinates' perceived leader competence influences leader effectiveness through subordinates' affective trust.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through two-wave surveys among 489 participants from various sectors in different parts of China. SPSS and Hayes PROCESS were used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
High competence perceived by the subordinates helps female leaders to overturn the negative effect of masculinity and strengthen the positive effect of femininity, whereas this positive moderation does not hold for male leaders.
Originality/value
This study addresses the ongoing debate about “female advantage” in leadership by showing that female leaders benefit from high perceived competence and are penalized by low perceived competence to a greater extent than male leaders in terms of leader effectiveness.
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He Huang, Jing Huang and Yanfeng Zhong
This study clarifies the operational performance of fashion companies during the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, improvement strategies have been provided in the post-pandemic…
Abstract
Purpose
This study clarifies the operational performance of fashion companies during the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, improvement strategies have been provided in the post-pandemic era.
Design/methodology/approach
The static and dynamic perspectives were combined to comprehensively analyze the operational performance of fashion companies before, during and after the COVID-19 outbreak. A comparative analysis among five representative countries was conducted to achieve global conclusions. Additionally, data envelopment analysis (DEA) theory and various DEA models were employed for the analysis.
Findings
The fashion industry has not achieved overall effectiveness. American companies have the best operational performance, followed by European and Chinese companies. In contrast, the impact of the pandemic on American companies was severe, whereas Chinese and European companies showed operational resilience. In addition, the pandemic had a devastating influence on the global fashion industry. This resulted in a decline in total factor productivity, and the main reason was technological regress. Furthermore, labor redundancy is a critical issue for the fashion industry in the post-pandemic era, even if it shows a decrease because of the pandemic.
Originality/value
The existing theory on the fashion industry during the pandemic was improved by expanding the time and geographical dimensions and integrating the advantages of various DEA models. Scientific improvement strategies were presented in the post-pandemic era with application value.
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Wan Jiang, Linlin Wang, Zhaofang Chu and Xifang Ma
The purpose of this paper is to examine how analyst recommendation change is associated with a firm’s magnitude of strategic change.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how analyst recommendation change is associated with a firm’s magnitude of strategic change.
Design/methodology/approach
This study argues that unfavorable analyst recommendation change serves as a powerful external assessment that current strategies are inappropriate and that changes are needed. This study also incorporates the moderating roles of CEO power and board’s informal hierarchy in the relationship between analyst recommendation change and firm’s magnitude of strategic change. Results from a sample of 824 observations generally support our predictions.
Findings
The findings of this study show that the greater the analysts downgrade for the company’s stock, the larger the magnitude of strategic change will be made. This study also considers the moderating roles of CEO power and the clarity of board’s informal hierarchy. In particular, the higher the CEO power, the weaker the relationship between analyst recommendation change and the magnitude of strategic change will be. The higher the clarity of board’s informal hierarchy, the more positive the relationship between analyst recommendation change and the magnitude of strategic change will be.
Originality/value
It extends research on the external predictors of strategic change by incorporating the role of unfavorable analyst recommendation change. In addition, it contributes to institutional theory by showing how external legitimacy pressure and internal corporate governance tool complement each other.
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Haifeng Huang, Xiaoyang Wu, Tingting Wang, Yongbin Sun and Qiang Fu
This paper aims to study the application of reinforcement learning (RL) in the control of an output-constrained flapping-wing micro aerial vehicle (FWMAV) with system uncertainty.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the application of reinforcement learning (RL) in the control of an output-constrained flapping-wing micro aerial vehicle (FWMAV) with system uncertainty.
Design/methodology/approach
A six-degrees-of-freedom hummingbird model is used without consideration of the inertial effects of the wings. A RL algorithm based on actor–critic framework is applied, which consists of an actor network with unknown policy gradient and a critic network with unknown value function. Considering the good performance of neural network (NN) in fitting nonlinearity and its optimum characteristics, an actor–critic NN optimization algorithm is designed, in which the actor and critic NNs are used to generate a policy and approximate the cost functions, respectively. In addition, to ensure the safe and stable flight of the FWMAV, a barrier Lyapunov function is used to make the flight states constrained in predefined regions. Based on the Lyapunov stability theory, the stability of the system is analyzed, and finally, the feasibility of RL in the control of a FWMAV is verified through simulation.
Findings
The proposed RL control scheme works well in ensuring the trajectory tracking of the FWMAV in the presence of output constraint and system uncertainty.
Originality/value
A novel RL algorithm based on actor–critic framework is applied to the control of a FWMAV with system uncertainty. For the stable and safe flight of the FWMAV, the output constraint problem is considered and solved by barrier Lyapunov function-based control.
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He Huang, Yuchen Xu, Youhao Wang and Ziwei Zhao
In this digital age and risk society, this study aims to explore innovative strategies for E-retailers during supply chain disruptions to construct a more resilient supply chain…
Abstract
Purpose
In this digital age and risk society, this study aims to explore innovative strategies for E-retailers during supply chain disruptions to construct a more resilient supply chain system.
Design/methodology/approach
Various game theoretical models are constructed to analyze four supply chain scenarios. Meanwhile, sufficient numerical analysis was conducted to observe the impact of key parameters on supply chain strategies.
Findings
Multiple crucial factors exert a comprehensive influence on E-retailers’ decisions on sourcing and pricing, leading to the diversity and complexity of decision-making conditions. First, with the increased probability of disruption, the purchase quantities of the E-retailer from different suppliers are not in a linear changing pattern, and the total purchase quantity is allocated variably between different suppliers. Second, the variation in disruption severity (partial or complete) results in the shift of decisions between single-sourcing and dual-sourcing. Responsive pricing is conducive to increasing the purchase quantity and profits under partial disruption; its advantages are diminished when completely disrupted. Third, higher commission rates usually have a detrimental impact on profit, whereas responsive pricing may mitigate this impact.
Originality/value
Unlike the previous single perspective, this study innovatively explores strategies from the hybrid perspective of sourcing and pricing. By extracting two key factors (disruption probability and severity), it realizes the scientific characterization of supply chain disruptions. These achievements boost theoretical innovation. Concentrating on E-retailers, it avoids the generalization of conclusions and enhances the application value.
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He Huang, Weining Wang and Yujie Yin
This study aims to focus on the clothing recycling supply chain and aims to provide optimal decisions and managerial insights into supply chain strategies, thereby facilitating…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to focus on the clothing recycling supply chain and aims to provide optimal decisions and managerial insights into supply chain strategies, thereby facilitating the sustainable development of the clothing industry.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on previous single- and dual-channel studies, game theory was employed to analyze multiple recycling channels. Concurrently, clothing consumer types were integrated into the analytical models to observe their impact on supply chain strategies. Three market scenarios were modeled for comparative analysis, and numerical experiments were conducted.
Findings
The intervention of fashion retailers in the clothing recycling market has intensified competition across the entire market. The proportions of various consumer types, their preferences for online platforms and their preference for the retailer’s channel influence the optimal decisions and profits of supply chain members. The diversity of recycling channels may enhance the recycling volume of clothes; however, it should meet certain conditions.
Originality/value
This study extends the existing theory from a channel dimension by exploring multiple channels. Furthermore, by investigating the classifications of clothing consumers and their influence on supply chain strategies, the theory is enhanced from the consumer perspective.
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