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Due to its inexpensive production costs, low stress concentration and maintenance-friendliness, the adhesive bonded pipe joint is frequently utilized for pipe connection. However, further theoretical analysis is needed to understand the debonding failure mechanism of such bonded pipe joints under axial tension.

In this study, based on the bi-linear cohesive zone model, the integrated closed-form solutions were derived by considering the axial stiffness ratio and failure stage to determine the relative interfacial slip, interfacial shear stress and relationship of tension–displacement in the bonded pipe joint.

Additionally, solutions for the critical bonded length and the ultimate load capacity were put forth. Besides, the numerical study was conducted to verify the theoretical solutions regarding the load–displacement relationship. The interfacial shear stress distribution at different failure stages was presented to understand the interfacial shear stress transmission and debonding process. The effect of bonded length on the ultimate load and ductility of pipe joints was also discussed.

The findings in this study can give a reference for the design of bonded pipe joints in their actual engineering applications.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the influence of different aspects of top management team (TMT) functional background on short-term performance, long-term performance, innovation performance and oversea performance separately. This research aims to verify whether the social categorization theory and information and decision-making theory are applicable in listed companies of China’s information technology (IT) industry so as to provide key theoretical references for TMT enhancement ad corporate performance improvement.

This paper takes A-share listed companies in Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange as its study subjects, and it chooses the data from 2004 to 2010 in all of the 105 companies in IT industry in terms of the classification of Wind Database. The stepwise multiple regressions were run utilizing the regression program in Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS).

The research results show that the social categorization theory can better explain TMT’s influence on corporate performance. TMT functional heterogeneity does not contribute to improving corporate performance and shows significant negative influence on short-term performance and innovation performance in particular. Among the three basic functional backgrounds, TMTs dominated by “throughput” backgrounds show significant positive influence on short-term performance, long-term performance, innovation performance and overseas performance, and the influence turns out to be the largest among these three backgrounds. In terms of the three special professional experiences, top executives with overseas backgrounds have significant positive influence on all of short-term, long-term, innovation and overseas performances. Externally hired executives, however, would impede corporate innovation development, while those with government background would increase corporate overseas performance.

This paper analyzes the relationship between TMT functional background and corporate performance in a comprehensive way for the first time and then takes the lead in considering the dynamics and complexity of corporate performance as well as discussing the influence of TMT functional background on four corporate performances. This study not only supports the effect that the social categorization theory has on TMTs but also offers some inspirations on the development of China’s IT companies.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the formation mechanism of the host country people's coping behavior regarding the construction of transnational railways to help engineering managers and decision makers improve their risk management and lead to sustainable transnational railway construction projects.

This paper adopted the grounded theory methodology to analyze the news stories reported by “Belt and Road Portal” and “The New York Times” about eight transnational railways. They were China–Kyrgyzstan–Uzbekistan (Central Asia), Mecca-to-Medina (West Asia), Hungarian–Serbia (Europe), China–Nepal (South Asia), Bi-Oceanic (South America), Mombasa–Nairobi (Africa), China–Laos (Southeast Asia) and Panama railways (North America). The keywords for news search were the names of each railway. After eliminating the problem sentences with semantic repetition and ambiguity, 2,631 effective sentences were formed to screen the information and code. The process included open, axial and selective coding.

It was concluded that the core structure of the formation mechanism was “situation,” “influence factor,” “cognition” and “coping behavior.” The country-of-origin image has served as an adjustment function in the analysis for the host country people. Governance strategies were suggested focusing on risk prevention, risk mitigation and risk response according to social risk management.

The rise of transnational railway construction is encouraged by the process of globalization. But during the long construction period, the host country people's coping behavior would develop into social conflicts and mass incidents, becoming a significant obstacle to construction objectives. Thus, studying the formation mechanism of public coping behaviors can better take measures to prevent social risks.

The contributions of this research are three aspects: first, a formation mechanism of the host country people's coping behavior based on grounded theory is presented. Second, the country-of-origin image is found to be a factor that cannot be ignored in a transnational context. The formation mechanism of public coping behaviors is improved compared to risk management in the domestic situation. Finally, the host country people pay more attention to the motivations of country-of-origin's controlling interests and their own emotions compared with internal stakeholders.

This paper aims to study the oscillation phenomenon before chaos as well as its mechanism of occurrence in the energy-saving and emission-reduction system.

The system dynamics analysis, phase portrait analyses, equilibrium point analysis and bifurcation curve were applied to this paper.

First, the authors find an oscillation phenomenon previous to chaos. Second, on the one hand, the existence of two unstable saddles is the reason for the occurrence of oscillation phenomenon. On the other hand, the increasing of carbon emissions can arouse oscillation phenomenon.

This paper finds an oscillation phenomenon previous to chaos in the energy-saving and emission-reduction system. The mechanism of occurrence of oscillation phenomenon is studied. The existence of two unstable saddles is the reason for the occurrence of such oscillation phenomenon. The oscillation is related with fold bifurcation. The study also provides a theoretical basis for the further study of chaos control.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the tribological properties of MoS₂ nano‐sized hollow spheres in liquid paraffin (LP) and the corresponding action mechanism. Morever, its feasibity of industrial application as an oil additive in the industrial lubrication field is also explored.

The tribological properties of MoS₂ nano‐sized hollow spheres (NH‐MoS₂) modified by Cyanex 301(di‐(2,4,4‐trimethylpentyl) dithiophosphinic acid) with size of 200 ∼ 300 nm in LP are studied and compared with those of the commercial colloidal MoS₂ (CC‐MoS₂) on a four‐ball tester and an Optimol SRV Oscillating friction and wear tester in a ball‐on disk configuration. The worn surfaces of the lower flat disc are examined with a scanning electron microscopy and an X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, respectively.

Results show that NH‐MoS₂ is a better extreme‐pressure additive and anti‐wear (AW) and friction‐reducing additive in LP than CC‐MoS₂. Under the optimum concentration of 0.5 per cent for both NH‐MoS₂ and CC‐MoS₂ and the load of 400 N, the friction coefficient of NH‐MoS₂ + LP and CC‐MoS₂ + LP decreases about 43.8 and 6.3 per cent, and the wear volume loss decreases about 60.3 and 12.0 per cent compared with the pure LP. The boundary lubrication mechanism for NH‐MoS₂ + LP can be deduced as the effective chemical adsorption protective film formed by the long chain alkyls R and active elements (S and P) in the modification layer and tribochemical reaction film containing the tribochemical products of the additive. Moreover, sliding and rolling frictions co‐exist in NH‐MoS₂ + LP, doing contributions to the good tribological properties as well.

In this paper, the Cyanex 301‐modified MoS₂ nano‐sized hollow spheres with diameter of 200 ∼ 300 nm are firstly added into LP to investigate its tribological properties. The excellent AW and friction‐reducing properties indicate that this MoS₂ hollow spheres product is a good oil additive, and the fundamental data presented here will be useful for its further industrial application in the future.

External knowledge should not be limited in one zone or level. Researchers have paid more attention to the perspective of multilevel cluster networks. However, little research has empirically studied the various dimensions of external knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to study different levels of external knowledge, their relation with trade and non-trade interdependence and their relation with different kinds of innovations, namely, exploitation and exploration.

Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were adopted in this study. In terms of the quantitative research method, data were collected from 168 companies in the Shenzhen Hi-Tech Industrial Park of China using convenience sampling. As for the qualitative research method, a total of 35 interviews were carried out in this study.

The quantitative results indicate that different levels of external knowledge in the Shenzhen Hi-Tech Park have different effects. First of all, the results indicate that cross-national connections have a positive influence on trade interdependence, which helps firms to produce exploration. Second, cross-regional connections have a positive influence on both trade and non-trade interdependence, which further help firms to create innovative exploitation and exploration. Third, inter-regional connections have a positive influence on non-trade interdependence, which helps firms to increase innovative exploitation. The qualitative result makes a plausible explanation for the quantitative results. The interview results indicate that as the telecommunications industry has so much to do with China’s national security, there are several initiatives of market protection strategies and political interventions, which help firms to form different levels of knowledge flow in Shenzhen.

There are several limitations of this study which primarily relate to the case study method. The results can be contextually generalized to the domestic-oriented cluster in developing countries.

This study has several managerial implications. First, this research ensures that it is important to consider the multilevel nature of external knowledge before starting with the decision-making process of a firm in a cluster. Second, all levels of administrators and managers in a company should investigate what kinds of involvement and innovation are needed and most highly valued for organizational development. Third, the research framework of this study can be applied to understand which level of external knowledge influences organizational performance.

This study is an initial attempt to provide an examination of external knowledge, organizational involvement and innovation performance of an industrial cluster via a mixed method.

As megaprojects bear extensive and profound social responsibilities throughout the project life cycle, formulating effective measures for improving construction enterprise social responsibility is key to project success. Given the current research is relatively lack of these measures, this study aims to formulate a meta-network framework to improve the megaproject social responsibility behaviour (MSRB) for construction enterprises.

First, this study implements literature review, expert interview and field investigation to identify the construction enterprise MSRB and its influencing factors. Second, this study evaluates the MSRB implementation level of the selected construction enterprises and proposes the above mentioned meta-network framework. Next, this meta-network is configured to reflect the impact of MSRB strategic adjustment. Last but not least, a real-world case study is carried out to validate this framework.

The best MSRB performance is always witnessed from the contractor group, followed by the project client group and the site supervisor group. The outcomes of implementing certain managerial strategies indicate that (1) social responsibility cognition is a critical factor for all the groups; (2) communication mechanism and normative pressure are the critical factors for clients; (3) coercive pressure is a critical factor for supervisors and (4) cultural cognitive pressure is a critical factor for clients and contractors.

The use of the framework in proactive assessment and management of MSRB can lead to effective strategies for construction enterprises to increase the efficiency and quality of projects.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of capital expenditures (CAPEX) in the theme park industry, particularly following the financial stresses induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. CAPEX drivers are poorly understood due to the idiosyncratic nature of this industry, which is dominated by a few large players. It also aims to identify the variables influencing both the growth and maintenance components of CAPEX among U.S. theme park operators.

The paper uses contingency theory to analyze both financial and nonfinancial data from U.S. theme park operators between 2009 and 2021. The paper also uses partial least squares structural equation modeling to manage issues of multicollinearity and to ensure robustness in the findings.

The analysis identifies several key determinants of CAPEX. Resources and the presence of competing theme parks in proximity to an operator’s parks positively affect CAPEX. Conversely, higher leverage, dividend payouts, intellectual property (IP) dominance and population density in areas with their active parks correlate with reduced CAPEX. The paper also notes distinct trends in maintenance versus growth CAPEX post-COVID-19, with maintenance CAPEX increasing as operators invest in existing assets while growth CAPEX trending downwards.

The study’s scope is confined to U.S.-based theme park operators, limiting the generalizability of the findings internationally. Moreover, data limitations restrict the sample size due to the consolidation of the industry players, potentially affecting the statistical power of the analysis.

This research offers significant insights for theme park operators, industry analysts and policymakers. Understanding the factors influencing CAPEX can aid operators in strategic planning and investment decisions, especially in a post-pandemic economic environment where efficient capital allocation will be crucial for recovery and growth. A major contribution of this research is the development of a new measure for IP dominance, which allows theme park operators to quantify the impact of IP on their investment strategies.

This study contributes uniquely by incorporating both financial and nonfinancial determinants in analyzing CAPEX within the theme park industry, a sector significantly impacted by the pandemic. It introduces novel metrics for assessing the impact of IP on CAPEX and differentiates between the factors driving maintenance and growth expenditures. The findings enrich the existing literature on hospitality management and provide actionable insights that could guide the strategic financial decisions of theme park operators.