Haiyan Jiang and Honghui Zhang
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether regulatory restriction on executive compensation in Chinese state-owned enterprises is beneficial to firm performance. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether regulatory restriction on executive compensation in Chinese state-owned enterprises is beneficial to firm performance. The authors also examine the role of monitoring mechanisms in offsetting the effect of compensation restriction.
Design/methodology/approach
Multivariate analysis is conducted using archival data from Chinese listed companies over the period of 2007-2014.
Findings
The findings show that the restriction on executive compensation is negatively associated with a firm’s accounting performance, and this negative effect is ameliorated in firms with good internal control and a high level of institutional shareholding. Additional analysis reveals that the negative effect of pay restriction on firm performance is more pronounced in central government-controlled listed SOEs than in those controlled by local government.
Originality/value
This study is the first to investigate a government’s say-on-pay policy. Specifically, the findings pinpoint the inefficacy of regulatory intervention in corporate executive compensation. The findings add to compensation literature using China’s unique institutional setting.
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Jialiang Xie, Shanli Zhang, Honghui Wang and Mingzhi Chen
With the rapid development of Internet technology, cybersecurity threats such as security loopholes, data leaks, network fraud, and ransomware have become increasingly prominent…
Abstract
Purpose
With the rapid development of Internet technology, cybersecurity threats such as security loopholes, data leaks, network fraud, and ransomware have become increasingly prominent, and organized and purposeful cyberattacks have increased, posing more challenges to cybersecurity protection. Therefore, reliable network risk assessment methods and effective network security protection schemes are urgently needed.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the dynamic behavior patterns of attackers and defenders, a Bayesian network attack graph is constructed, and a multitarget risk dynamic assessment model is proposed based on network availability, network utilization impact and vulnerability attack possibility. Then, the self-organizing multiobjective evolutionary algorithm based on grey wolf optimization is proposed. And the authors use this algorithm to solve the multiobjective risk assessment model, and a variety of different attack strategies are obtained.
Findings
The experimental results demonstrate that the method yields 29 distinct attack strategies, and then attacker's preferences can be obtained according to these attack strategies. Furthermore, the method efficiently addresses the security assessment problem involving multiple decision variables, thereby providing constructive guidance for the construction of security network, security reinforcement and active defense.
Originality/value
A method for network risk assessment methods is given. And this study proposed a multiobjective risk dynamic assessment model based on network availability, network utilization impact and the possibility of vulnerability attacks. The example demonstrates the effectiveness of the method in addressing network security risks.
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Ruhao Zhao, Xiaoping Ma, He Zhang, Honghui Dong, Yong Qin and Limin Jia
This paper aims to propose an enhanced densely dehazing network to suit railway scenes’ features and improve the visual quality degraded by haze and fog.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose an enhanced densely dehazing network to suit railway scenes’ features and improve the visual quality degraded by haze and fog.
Design/methodology/approach
It is an end-to-end network based on DenseNet. The authors design enhanced dense blocks and fuse them in a pyramid pooling module for visual data’s local and global features. Multiple ablation studies have been conducted to show the effects of each module proposed in this paper.
Findings
The authors have compared dehazed results on real hazy images and railway hazy images of state-of-the-art dehazing networks with the dehazed results in data quality. Finally, an object-detection test is taken to judge the edge information preservation after haze removal. All results demonstrate that the proposed dehazing network performs better under railway scenes in detail.
Originality/value
This study provides a new method for image enhancing in the railway monitoring system.
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Lin Zhang, Shenjiang Mo, Honghui Chen and Jintao Wu
This paper aims to demonstrate that corporate philanthropy can be driven from the bottom to the top. In particular, the authors investigate whether employees’ donations influence…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to demonstrate that corporate philanthropy can be driven from the bottom to the top. In particular, the authors investigate whether employees’ donations influence corporate philanthropy and under what conditions this effect occurs.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample consists of Chinese listed firms that disclosed the amount employees donated in response to the Sichuan earthquake in 2008. The Heckman two-stage selection model is applied to examine the effect of employees’ donations on corporate philanthropy and the conditions under which this effect occurs.
Findings
The results show that employees’ donations are positively associated with corporate philanthropy. Furthermore, a higher percentage of females in top management teams can significantly strengthen the effect of employees’ donations on corporate philanthropy. When the average age of the top management team members is high, the influence of employees’ donations on corporate philanthropy is stronger.
Practical implications
This is an empirical study that helps to predict corporate philanthropy. Another practical implication is that employees should be recognized as an important element of corporate social responsibility.
Social implications
The results encourage employees to become drivers of corporate social responsibility.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the corporate social responsibility literature by demonstrating that corporate philanthropy can be driven from the bottom to the top. Moreover, this study integrates signaling theory into the study of corporate social responsibility. Finally, this study identifies two important contingent factors that strengthen the effect of employees on top managers’ decisions about corporate social responsibility.
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Lin Zhang, Shenjiang Mo and Honghui Chen
From an institutional perspective, this study empirically examines whether institutional pressures, such as industry pressures and public attention, significantly influence…
Abstract
Purpose
From an institutional perspective, this study empirically examines whether institutional pressures, such as industry pressures and public attention, significantly influence corporate philanthropic disaster responses (CPDRs). Furthermore, this paper aims to examine the moderating role of a company’s prior history of philanthropic donation.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses secondhand data from 217 Chinese listed companies that responded philanthropically to the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake.
Findings
This paper finds that both industry pressure and public attention are positively associated with companies’ donations; their prior history of philanthropic donations significantly moderates these relationships such that these relationships become stronger and for companies that have prior histories of small philanthropic donations.
Originality/value
First, this paper contributes to the philanthropy literature by identifying two kinds of institutional pressures (i.e. industry pressure and public attention) that exert great influences on CPDR contributions. Second, by studying the moderating role of firms’ prior philanthropic history, this study contributes to the understanding of companies’ different reactions to institutional pressures. In addition to the theoretical contribution, this paper encourages companies to proactively establish a sustainable philanthropic giving plan rather than being passively driven by external stakeholders.
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Lin Zhang, Jintao Wu, Honghui Chen and Bang Nguyen
Drawing on the branded service encounters perspective, the purpose of this study is to investigate how frontline service employees’ environmentally irresponsible behaviors affect…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the branded service encounters perspective, the purpose of this study is to investigate how frontline service employees’ environmentally irresponsible behaviors affect customers’ brand evaluations.
Design/methodology/approach
The research conducted two experiments. The first experiment explored the effect of frontline service employees’ environmentally irresponsible behaviors on customers’ brand evaluations via corporate hypocrisy. The second experiment explored the moderation effect of employees’ prototypicality and the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) among customers.
Findings
Experiment 1 indicates that for firms with a green brand image, frontline employees’ environmentally irresponsible behaviors result in customers’ perception that the firm is hypocritical, thus reducing their brand evaluations. Experiment 2 shows that employee prototypicality and CSR importance to the customer enhance the negative impact of frontline employees’ environmentally irresponsible behaviors on customers’ brand evaluations through customers’ perception of corporate hypocrisy.
Research limitations/implications
This study is one of the first efforts to explore how frontline service employees’ environmentally irresponsible behaviors affect customers’ responses. It helps understand the impact of frontline employees’ counter-productive sustainable behaviors on customers’ brand perception, as well as the relationship between CSR and employees.
Practical implications
This study suggests that firms’ green brand image does not always lead to positive customer response. When frontline employees’ behaviors are inconsistent with firms’ green brand image, it can trigger customers’ perceptions of corporate hypocrisy and thus influence their brand evaluations. Therefore, firms should train frontline service employees to make their behaviors align with the firms’ green brand image.
Originality/value
This study is one of the first efforts to explore how frontline service employees’ environmentally irresponsible behaviors affect customers’ responses. It helps understand the impact of frontline employees’ counter-productive sustainable behaviors on customers’ brand perception, as well as the relationship between CSR and employee.
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Honghui Zou, En Xie and Nan Mei
Trade credit is an important business-to-business marketing tool for building firms’ competitive advantage. Many studies explore the determinants of trade credits from a…
Abstract
Purpose
Trade credit is an important business-to-business marketing tool for building firms’ competitive advantage. Many studies explore the determinants of trade credits from a trust-based view, but the role of political connections is largely overlooked, despite their potential influence in assessing firms’ trustworthiness in the context of emerging economies. This study aims to fill this gap by examining how political connections affect the capacity of emerging economy firms (EEFs) to grant and receive trade credit.
Design/methodology/approach
This study tests a conceptual model using secondary data collected from 1,149 Chinese privately owned listed manufacturing firms between 2008 and 2016.
Findings
This study finds that political connections reduce EEFs’ accounts receivable and payable; their philanthropic activities alleviate this negative effect for accounts payable, while patent applications reduce it for accounts receivable. These findings suggest the effect of political connections can spillover to EEFs’ relationship with their up- and down-stream partners.
Practical implications
This study has implications EEF managers, particularly in pointing to the detrimental effect of political connections on relationships with buyers and suppliers, and highlights the need to adopt suitable approaches to offset this effect.
Originality/value
This study sheds new light on the negative effect of political connections on EEFs’ capacity to grant and receive trade credit in their exchanges with up-stream and down-stream partners. It enriches the trust-based view of trade credit by revealing the significant influence of EEFs’ political connections, while also advancing a contingency view by testing the moderating role of corporate philanthropic activities and patent applications.
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Xu Xiuqin, Xie Jialiang, Yue Na and Wang Honghui
The purpose of this paper is to develop a probabilistic uncertain linguistic (PUL) TODIM method based on the generalized Choquet integral, with respect to the interdependencies…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a probabilistic uncertain linguistic (PUL) TODIM method based on the generalized Choquet integral, with respect to the interdependencies between criteria, for the selection of the best alternate in the context of multiple criteria group decision-making (MCGDM).
Design/methodology/approach
Owing to decision makers (DMs) do not always show completely rational and may have the preference of bounded rational behavior, this may affect the result of the MCGDM. At the same time, criteria interaction is a focused issue in MCGDM. Hence, a novel TODIM method based on the generalized Choquet integral selects the best alternate using PUL evaluation, where the generalized Choquet integral is used to calculate the weight of criterion. The generalized PUL distance measure between two probabilistic uncertain linguistic elements (PULEs) is calculated and the perceived dominance degree matrices for each alternate relative to other alternates are obtained. Furthermore, the comprehensive perceived dominance degree of each alternate can be calculated to get the ranking.
Findings
Potential application of the PUL-TODIM method is demonstrated through an evaluation example with sensitivity and comparative analysis.
Originality/value
As per author's concern, there are no TODIM methods with probabilistic uncertain linguistic sets (PULTSs) to solve MCGDM problems under uncertainty. Compared with the result of existing methods, the final judgment value of alternates using the extended TODIM methodology is highly corroborated, which proves its potential in solving MCGDM problems under qualitative and quantitative environments.
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Shan Xue, Honghui Chen and Jintao Wu
Although previous research has investigated how performance feedback may affect firms’ strategic actions, their findings has been inconsistent. The relationship between…
Abstract
Purpose
Although previous research has investigated how performance feedback may affect firms’ strategic actions, their findings has been inconsistent. The relationship between performance feedback and firms’ strategic activities thus appears complex. Moreover, the authors contend that it may vary with the measurement strategies employed (i.e. social or historical feedback, operationalizations of strategic actions or accounting- and market-based performance indicators) and the national contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
Therefore, the current article presents a comprehensive meta-analysis of prior research, including 1,637,817 sample observations from 101 studies that span more than 18 countries.
Findings
The results indicate that (1) performance that are below or above aspirational levels generally has a positive relationship with firms’ strategic actions; (2) these relationships are contingent on the implementation forms taken by the key variables, such as performance feedback, strategic actions and performance indicators; and (3) the relationships are much stronger in countries where managerial discretion is greater.
Originality/value
The findings contribute to the clarification of long-standing theoretical and empirical debates regarding the relationship between performance feedback and strategic actions, as well as some pertinent directions for future research.
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Although the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial performance has become a hot topic of the Western management community after several decades…
Abstract
Purpose
Although the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial performance has become a hot topic of the Western management community after several decades of arguments, there is still little empirical literature about the relationship between Chinese companies' CSR and financial performance. According to the investigation of Chinese companies, this paper aims to use stakeholder theory to answer this question.
Design/methodology/approach
A theoretical framework is proposed based on the stakeholder theory by defining nine kinds of stakeholders and viewing the companies taking CSR as giving responses to the interest requirement of these stakeholders. Some agent variables are also set to depict CFP. Subsequently, this paper uses the data collected in 2007 and 2008 from Chinese firms to explore the relationship between CSR and corporate financial performance (CFP) empirically.
Findings
The results show that companies' social responsibility activity can improve their financial performances of the current year, have significant effects on their financial performances of the next year, and vice versa. The variation of CSR and financial performance can also significantly influence each other.
Originality/value
This research integrates the factors of time delay and cause‐effect with the relationship of CSR and CFP, and then provides theory support for companies taking CSR.