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In the context of China’s efforts to build world-class enterprises through mixed-ownership reform, this study aims to build an agency theory framework to analyze the differential relation between ownership structure and firm performance in majority versus minority state-owned enterprises (SOEs). It also evaluates the differential influence that political connectedness has on firm performance in the two types of SOEs.

Using a panel data set of Chinese state-controlled mixed-ownership enterprises covering the period 2010–2019, this paper uses ordinary least squares, random-effects, fixed-effects and three stage least squares regression analysis to study the differential impact of ownership structure and political connectedness on firm performance in majority versus minority SOEs.

In minority SOEs, firm performance is positively related to the ownership share of the largest private shareholder and state ownership positively moderates this relation. Furthermore, minority SOEs with a politically connected chairman perform worse than those with a politically connected chairman. In majority SOEs, there is no relation between the ownership share of the largest private shareholder and firm performance. In addition, majority SOEs with a politically connected chairman perform similar to those without a politically connected chairman.

The theoretical framework demonstrates that agency problems are substantially different in minority versus majority SOEs and that this influences how changes in ownership structure and in the type of chairman that is assigned affect firm performance. The empirical analysis confirms these predictions.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a method for stiffness modeling, identification and updating of collaborative robots (cobots). This method operates in real-time and with high precision and can eliminate the modeling error between the actual stiffness model and the theoretical stiffness model.

To simultaneously ensure the computational efficiency and modeling accuracy of the stiffness model, this method introduces the finite element substructure method (FESM) into the virtual joint method (VJM). The stiffness model of the cobots is built by integrating several 6-degree of freedom virtual joints that represent the elastic deformation of the cobot modules, and the stiffness matrices of these modules can be identified and obtained by the FESM. A model-updating method is proposed to identify stiffness influence coefficients, which can eliminate the modeling error between the actual prototype model and the theoretical finite element model.

The average relative error and the cycle time of the proposed method are approximately 6.14% and 1.31 ms, respectively. Compared with other stiffness modeling methods, this method not only has high modeling accuracy in high dexterity poses but also in low dexterity poses.

A hybrid stiffness modeling method is introduced to integrate the modeling accuracy of the FESM into the VJM. Stiffness influence coefficients are proposed to eliminate the modeling error between the theoretical and actual stiffness models.

This study examines the effects of the online brand community's (OBC) humor climate on the value cocreation (VCC) behavior of consumers using the affective events theory. It also evaluates the serial mediating roles of positive emotions and brand engagement and the moderating effect of membership duration.

The authors collected data from 601 Chinese consumers of OBCs using an online questionnaire survey and applied structural equation modeling to analyze the data.

The authors found a positive relationship between OBC humor climate and VCC behavior, which was mediated by positive emotions and brand engagement. Additionally, there was a serial mediation effect of these two variables. The influence of the OBC humor climate on positive emotions was stronger for short-term members than long-term ones.

This research contributes toward OBC management and VCC marketing strategy for constructing brand equity.

This study is among the first to focus on the significance of the OBC humor climate, thus enriching the OBC literature and providing a new perspective on how to facilitate VCC behavior. It also broadens the application of the affective events theory in marketing.

This paper aims to advance the literature by testing the boundary of this relationship with reference to a key construct in employee performance in the service domain: employee customer orientation. Organizational identification refers to employees’ perceived oneness and belongingness to their work organization, and has been argued to be associated with higher employee performance.

Data were collected based on a sample of call center service workers. Employees rated their organizational identification, customer orientation and personality traits. Supervisors independently rated their subordinates’ performance. Variables statistic tools were used to analyze the data and test a series of hypotheses.

It was found that customer orientation strengthens the relationship between organizational identification and service workers’ job performance, and it enhances the mediating effect of organizational identification on the relationship between service workers’ personality trait (i.e. agreeableness) and their performance.

This research advances an argument that employee customer orientation moderates the relationship between employee organizational identification and employee job performance in the call center service provision domain. In addition, this is a pioneering study examining the roles of personality traits on employee organizational identification.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a research model to identify the key determinants and examine their impact towards online pro-brand and anti-brand community citizenship behaviours (CCBs).

A survey based on the research model is used to collect empirical data from 260 and 200 members of online pro-brand communities (OBCs) and online anti-brand communities (OABCs), respectively. A two-stage approach employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis and artificial neural network (ANN) is first applied to uncover new observations.

Moral identity and positive brand emotion (BE) are the two most influential factors driving both online pro-brand and anti-brand CCBs. A higher level of internalisation might be required to exhibit online anti-brand CCB as opposed to online pro-brand CCB. This contradicts the current understanding that anti-brand behaviours are less morally restricted given the virtuality and anonymity of online communities. OABC members may need to better justify themselves internally to overcome positive BE when exercising anti-brand action. Also, brand identification, brand dis-identification and BE would be used to identify two types of OABC members.

The effect of motives other than pro-social remains unclear on online pro-brand and anti-brand CCBs.

This is the first paper to develop two new dimensions which provide a more complete definition of CCB. Also, some new observations are uncovered by comparing the effect of different key determinants on online pro-brand CCB against that of online anti-brand CCB. The research model can be used to define and improve member (or brand) engagement which would enhance the management of OBCs and OABCs.

This study aims to discover the factors which influence user satisfaction levels and their continuous use intention (CUI) of academic library social media, and then considers how to promote and improve further work on library social media to reduce user churn and increase user satisfaction.

An updated DeLone and McLean information systems success (D&M ISS) model and the expectation confirmation model for information systems continuance (ECM-ISC) with new variables of emotions are used to examine the factors which influence user satisfaction levels and CUI of academic library social media through 445 questionnaires. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data and presented in tables.

The results show that information quality, system quality and emotions affect user satisfaction and CUI, and reveal that emotions can affect that most obviously.

The WeChat public platform is mainly used in China, so the study only focuses on Chinese academic libraries. There are still limitations on the settings of observed variables which cannot cover all the causes of users’ positive and negative emotions. In addition, although the respondents of this questionnaire can represent academic library users, 445 samples are still fairly low in contrast to the great number of academic library WeChat public platform users.

This study integrates ECM-ISC and D&M ISS models, adds positive and negative emotions as new variables, to broaden the application scope of these models, and demonstrates the applicability of these two models in the fields of researching academic library social media, expanding and deepening related theories above. This also provides practical reference for academic libraries on how to improve user satisfaction and CUI of academic library social media and academic library WeChat public platforms, promoting the development of academic library social media.

In shield tunneling projects, human, shield machine and underground environment are tightly coupled and interacted. Accidents often occur under dysfunctional interactions among them. Therefore, this paper aims to develop a multi-agent based safety computational experiment system (SCES) and use it to identify the main influential factors of various aspects of human, shield machine and underground environment.

The methods mainly comprised computational experiments and multi-agent technologies. First, a safety model with human-machine-environment interaction consideration is developed through the multi-agent technologies. On this basis, SCES is implemented. Then computational experiments are designed and performed on SCES for analyzing safety performance and identifying the main influential factors.

The main influential factors of two common accidents are identified. For surface settlement, the main influential factors are ranked as experience, soil density, soil cohesion, screw conveyor speed and thrust force in descending order of influence levels; for mud cake on cutter, they are ranked as soil cohesion, experience, cutter speed and screw conveyor speed. These results are consistent with intuition and previous studies and demonstrate the applicability of SCES.

The proposed SCES provides comprehensive risk factor identification for shield tunneling projects and also insights to support informed decisions for safety management.

A safety model with human-machine-environment interaction consideration is developed and computational experiments are used to analyze the safety performance. The novel method and model could contribute to system-based safety research and promote systematic understanding of the safety performance of shield tunneling projects.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a numerical simulation method based on the transient upstream finite element method (FEM) and Schottky emission theory to reveal the distribution characteristics of space charge in oil-paper insulation.

The main insulation medium of the converter transformer in high voltage direct current transmission is oil-paper insulation. However, the influence of space charge is difficult to be fully considered in the insulation design and simulation of converter transformers. To reveal the influence characteristics of the space charge, this paper proposes a numerical simulation method based on Schottky emission theory and the transient upstream FEM. This method considers the influence of factors, such as carrier mobility, carrier recombination coefficient, trap capture coefficient and diffusion coefficient on the basis of multi-physics field coupling calculation of the electric field and fluid field.

A numerical simulation method considering multiple charge states is proposed for the space charge problem in oil-paper insulation. Meanwhile, a space charge measurement platform based on the electrostatic capacitance probe method for oil-paper insulation structure is built, and the effectiveness and accuracy of the numerical simulation method is verified.

A variety of models are calculated and analyzed by the numerical simulation method in this paper, and the distribution characteristics of the space charge and total electric field in oil-paper insulation medium with single-layer, polarity reversal of plate voltage and double-layer are obtained. The research results of this paper have the guiding significance for the engineering application of oil-paper insulation and the optimal design of converter transformer insulation.

The purpose of this study is to understand Chinese consumers’ responses to ethnically tailored hotel services from the theoretical perspective of cultural essentialism.

Data collection was conducted through an online survey with Chinese respondents. Hierarchical moderated regression was performed to analyze the data.

The results show a positive relationship between cultural essentialism and consumer responses to hotel services that are tailored to their culture. Furthermore, the findings show that prior service satisfaction does not only positively influence the consumer responses, but also amplifies the link between cultural essentialism and the consumer responses.

Hoteliers are recommended to consider the cultural essentialism of Chinese consumers when adaptive services are introduced. Hotel services that are tailored to Chinese culture is a viable strategy if most Chinese customers are cultural essentialists.

This study adds knowledge to the hospitality scholarship by introducing cultural essentialism and demonstrating its role in influencing consumer preferences for familiarity as opposed to exotic hotel services. Furthermore, the moderating role of service satisfaction extends the consumer behavior literature.

The number of cultural centres in South China shows an increasing trend. However, there is still a lack of research of this public building type and its related design strategy. This paper aims to identify general characteristics and presents design principles of cultural centres and thus enriches the theory of compact design strategies.

In total, 66 cases of cultural centres in South China have been investigated. The design patterns of these cultural centres projects are analysed by Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS). The theory of compact design strategies is thus used to emphasize the systemic characteristics of cultural centres.

Cultural centres mostly have an overall floor area between 20,000-40,000 square metres (m²). Much cultural centres consist of three to four functional components. Different functional blocks are intensively organized in parallel or in series along a horizontal or vertical direction. The combination of multiple functions is divided into four usual composition types. The most common type is the “synthetical integration”. There are a total of four different distribution modes of integrated layout. Each of these modes can express different narrative themes according its needs, and four kinds of narrative themes are summarized.

Appropriate compact design strategies may be applied to improve the quality of public buildings in a region with the problem of land use limitation. Applications of results of this paper may enhance design efficiency or lead to more appropriate works.

Compact design strategies can be a guide for appropriate architectural design. The findings of this research provide regular design patterns for designers and engineers to streamline their design process.