Wenzhang Sun, Jiawei Zhu and Xuhui Wang
The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of board secretaries’ characteristics on annual report readability using an original method that evaluates the readability…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of board secretaries’ characteristics on annual report readability using an original method that evaluates the readability of Chinese characters.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors manually collect board secretaries’ characteristics from the China Securities Market and Accounting Research database and obtain annual reports from the China Information website. Ordinary least square regression is applied to evaluate the impact, and then robustness tests and additional regression analyses are conducted.
Findings
Board secretaries’ legal-professional expertise, international expertise and role duality improve annual report readability. However, their political connections are negatively associated with it. The effect of expertise (role duality) is more pronounced for firms with lower ex ante litigation risk (board secretaries with equity holdings). Furthermore, higher readability increases the compensation of board secretaries, whereas lower readability increases their turnover. Finally, annual report readability is positively related to firm performance.
Research limitations/implications
The authors only investigate listed firms in China from 2007 to 2017 because of the difficulties of obtaining data and text mining.
Practical implications
The authors provide managerial insights for regulators aiming to establish an effective governance mechanism with Chinese characteristics. First, certain requirements for board secretaries’ expertise can improve annual report readability. Further, firms can consider appointing board members or senior executives as board secretaries to enhance disclosure quality.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to verify the effect of board secretaries’ characteristics on disclosure quality, especially annual report readability. Moreover, this study proposes a novel measure of annual report readability for Chinese texts.
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Jiawei Xu, Yubing Yu, Ye Wu, Justin Zuopeng Zhang, Yulong Liu, Yanhong Cao and Prajwal Eachempati
The paper aims to study the relationship between corporate social responsibility, green supply chain management, and operational performance and the moderating effects of…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to study the relationship between corporate social responsibility, green supply chain management, and operational performance and the moderating effects of relational capital on these relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conduct an empirical study with a structural equation modeling approach to investigate the relationship between corporate social responsibility—constructed by the quality and environmental responsibility, green supply chain management—including green supplier and customer management and operational performance—manifested by quality, cost, flexibility, and delivery performance using data from 308 manufacturers in China. Besides, the authors explore the moderating effect of supplier and customer relational capital on these relationships.
Findings
The findings indicate that a company's quality and environmental responsibility significantly impacts its green supply chain management practices, which further improve its operational performance in quality, cost, flexibility, and delivery. In addition, supplier and customer relational capital strengthens the influence of environmental responsibility on green supply chain management. While supplier relational capital reinforces the impact of green supplier management on flexibility and delivery performance, customer relational capital only strengthens the influence of green customer management on flexibility performance.
Originality/value
The study enriches the extant literature by developing a holistic framework integrating corporate social responsibility, green supply chain management, relational capital, and operational performance and unraveling their intricate relationships. The authors’ findings help practitioners prioritize proactive steps in environmental conservation more than achieving operational performance.
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Liang Xiao, Jiawei Wang and Xinyu Wei
Value co-creation (VCC) helps platforms establish competitive advantages. Unlike their traditional counterparts, social attribute is a key concept of social e-commerce platforms…
Abstract
Purpose
Value co-creation (VCC) helps platforms establish competitive advantages. Unlike their traditional counterparts, social attribute is a key concept of social e-commerce platforms. This study integrates VCC and social network theories, introduces relational embeddedness and divides this variable into economic and social relational embeddedness to explore its impact on VCC intention. This study also explores the mediating and moderating roles of customers' psychological ownership (CPO) and regulatory focus, respectively.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire survey was conducted among users of mainstream social e-commerce platforms in China, and the relationship among the variables was revealed through a structural equation modeling of 464 valid responses.
Findings
The dimensions of relational embeddedness positively affect CPO and VCC intention, with social relational embeddedness exerting the strongest effect. CPO positively affects VCC intention and partially mediates the relationship between relational embeddedness and VCC intention. Promotion and prevention focus positively and negatively moderate the relationship between CPO and VCC intention, respectively.
Originality/value
This study expands the VCC research perspective and links the VCC concepts to social network dynamics. From the relational embeddedness perspective, this study identifies the type and intensity of relational embeddedness that promotes users' VCC intention and contributes to theoretical research on VCC and relational embeddedness. This study also introduces CPO as an intermediary variable, thus opening the black box of this mechanism, and confirms the moderating role of regulatory focus as the key psychological factor motivating users' VCC intention.
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Hao Jiao, Jifeng Yang, Cheng Jiang and Jiawei Yu
This research helps firms pursue an open innovation strategy but want to minimize competitive pressure from other external entities. A theoretical framework is constructed to…
Abstract
Purpose
This research helps firms pursue an open innovation strategy but want to minimize competitive pressure from other external entities. A theoretical framework is constructed to analyze the impact of openness on innovation performance, exploring different effect of firms' external search channels.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper employs a stepwise hierarchical regression approach to assess the effect of openness on technological innovation considering the role of information technology adoption and political ties. The effect is conducted using a large-scale sample of 1,073 Chinese manufacturing firms over the period 2011–2013 as empirical research objects.
Findings
There are two stages of the open technological innovation process while the information technology (IT) adoption and political ties are the key consideration in emerging markets. Openness is curvilinearly (taking an inverted U-shape) related to innovation performance. Both information technology adoption and political ties generally help firms to turn broadly sourced external knowledge into technological innovation performance. This will stimulate “one plus one is greater than two” effect not only in the process of achieving performance goals, but also in the process of technological innovation.
Originality/value
This quantitative research illustrates the importance relationship between firms' open behaviors and technological innovation performance in emerging markets. It helps us understand firms' current constrains of open strategy of technological innovation and helps domestic or foreign investors to make strategic collaboration choices in emerging economies according to the degree of openness, informatization level, political connections, which is equally important for research and practice.
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Yingwen Yan, Yajun Wang, Yuanhao Deng and Jinghua Li
This paper aims to get an in-depth understanding of the fuel spray characteristics to further improve the emission performance of a lean premixed prevaporized (LPP) combustor with…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to get an in-depth understanding of the fuel spray characteristics to further improve the emission performance of a lean premixed prevaporized (LPP) combustor with staged lean combustion.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the fuel spray characteristics in the LPP combustor are experimentally studied by using particle image velocimetry (PIV), and raw data are processed by image-processing technologies for different inlet conditions. The effects of the fuel allocation and pilot atomizer position on fuel spray characteristics are investigated.
Findings
Experiment results show that when only the pilot atomizer is operated, the fuel spray characteristics is worsened by increasing fuel flow rate. The fuel spray fields generated by the pilot atomizer are better at the throat than that at the pilot swirler outlet; when the pilot atomizer and primary injector are operated at the same time with the same inlet fuel air ratio, the spray characteristics are improved by increasing the primary fuel flow rate and decreasing the pilot fuel flow rate. Meanwhile, fuel spray fields generated by the pilot atomizer are better at the throat than that at the pilot swirler outlet.
Practical implications
The present results are useful for further development of the LPP combustor.
Originality/value
An LPP combustor with staged lean combustion technology was proposed; to obtain fuel spray characteristics, image-processing program was compiled; the fuel spray characteristics in the LPP combustor were investigated, especially the effects of the fuel allocation and pilot atomizer position.
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Xiangdi Yue, Yihuan Zhang, Jiawei Chen, Junxin Chen, Xuanyi Zhou and Miaolei He
In recent decades, the field of robotic mapping has witnessed widespread research and development in light detection and ranging (LiDAR)-based simultaneous localization and…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent decades, the field of robotic mapping has witnessed widespread research and development in light detection and ranging (LiDAR)-based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) techniques. This paper aims to provide a significant reference for researchers and engineers in robotic mapping.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper focused on the research state of LiDAR-based SLAM for robotic mapping as well as a literature survey from the perspective of various LiDAR types and configurations.
Findings
This paper conducted a comprehensive literature review of the LiDAR-based SLAM system based on three distinct LiDAR forms and configurations. The authors concluded that multi-robot collaborative mapping and multi-source fusion SLAM systems based on 3D LiDAR with deep learning will be new trends in the future.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first thorough survey of robotic mapping from the perspective of various LiDAR types and configurations. It can serve as a theoretical and practical guide for the advancement of academic and industrial robot mapping.
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Jie Zhou, Zeyao Li, Wanjun Tian and Jiawei Sun
This study purposes to study the influence of artificial freezing on the liquefaction characteristics of Nanjing sand, as well as its mechanism.
Abstract
Purpose
This study purposes to study the influence of artificial freezing on the liquefaction characteristics of Nanjing sand, as well as its mechanism.
Design/methodology/approach
was studied through dynamic triaxial tests by means of the GDS dynamic triaxial system on Nanjing sand extensively discovered in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River under seismic load and metro train vibration load, respectively, and potential hazards of the two loads to the freezing construction of Nanjing sand were also identified in the tests.
Findings
The results show that under both seismic load and metro train vibration load, freeze-thaw cycles will significantly reduce the stiffness and liquefaction resistance of Nanjing sand, especially in the first freeze-thaw cycle; the more freeze-thaw cycles, the worse structural behaviors of silty-fine sand, and the easier to liquefy; freeze-thaw cycles will increase the sensitivity of Nanjing sand's dynamic pore pressure to dynamic load response; the lower the freezing temperature and the effective confining pressure, the worse the liquefaction resistance of Nanjing sand after freeze-thaw cycles; compared to the metro train vibration load, the seismic load in Nanjing is potentially less dangerous to freezing construction of Nanjing sand.
Originality/value
The research results are helpful to the construction of the artificial ground freezing of the subway crossing passage in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and to ensure the construction safety of the subway tunnel and its crossing passage.
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Tan Zhang, Zhanying Huang, Ming Lu, Jiawei Gu and Yanxue Wang
Rotating machinery is a crucial component of large equipment, and detecting faults in it accurately is critical for reliable operation. Although fault diagnosis methods based on…
Abstract
Purpose
Rotating machinery is a crucial component of large equipment, and detecting faults in it accurately is critical for reliable operation. Although fault diagnosis methods based on deep learning have been significantly developed, the existing methods model spatial and temporal features separately and then weigh them, resulting in the decoupling of spatiotemporal features.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors propose a spatiotemporal long short-term memory (ST-LSTM) method for fault diagnosis of rotating machinery. The authors collected vibration signals from real rolling bearing and gearing test rigs for verification.
Findings
Through these two experiments, the authors demonstrate that machine learning methods still have advantages on small-scale data sets, but our proposed method exhibits a significant advantage due to the simultaneous modeling of the time domain and space domain. These results indicate the potential of the interactive spatiotemporal modeling method for fault diagnosis of rotating machinery.
Originality/value
The authors propose a ST-LSTM method for fault diagnosis of rotating machinery. The authors collected vibration signals from real rolling bearing and gearing test rigs for verification.
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Jinliang Liu, Yanmin Jia, Guanhua Zhang and Jiawei Wang
In the freeze-thaw zone, the pre-stressed concrete of bridge structure will be damaged by freezing-thawing, the bearing capacity of structure will decrease and the safety will be…
Abstract
Purpose
In the freeze-thaw zone, the pre-stressed concrete of bridge structure will be damaged by freezing-thawing, the bearing capacity of structure will decrease and the safety will be affected. The purpose of this paper is to establish the time-dependent resistance degradation model of structure in the freeze-thaw zone, and analysis the structural reliability and remaining service life in different freeze-thaw zones.
Design/methodology/approach
First, according to the theory of structural design, a calculation model of the resistance of pre-stressed concrete structures in f freeze-thaw zone is established. Second, the time-dependent resistance model was verified by the test beam bending failure test results done by the research group, which has been in service for 20 years in freeze-thaw zone. Third, using JC algorithm in MATLAB to calculate the index on the reliability of pre-stressed concrete structure in frozen thawed zones, forecasting the s remaining service life of structure.
Findings
First, the calculation model of the resistance of pre-stressed concrete structures in freeze-thaw zone is accurate and it has excellent applicability. Second, the structural resistance deterioration time in Wet-Warm-Frozen Zone is the earliest. Third, once the pre-stressed reinforcement rusts, the structural reliability index will reach limit value quickly. Finally, the remaining service life of structure meets the designed expectation value only in a few of freeze-thaw zones in China.
Originality/value
The research will provide a reference for the design on the durability of a pre-stressed concrete structure in the freeze-thaw zone. In order to verify the security of pre-stressed concrete structures in the freeze-thaw zone, engineers can use the model presented in this paper for durability checking, it has an important significance.
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Xian Zheng, Jiawei Deng, Xiangnan Song, Meng Ye and Lan Luo
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and innovation are the two main approaches firms utilize to promote sustainable development. However, as yet, scholars have reached no…
Abstract
Purpose
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and innovation are the two main approaches firms utilize to promote sustainable development. However, as yet, scholars have reached no consensus regarding their precise impact on construction firm performance (CFP), hindering efforts to implement effective sustainable development strategies that improve CFP. In view that a simple linear relationship may not be sufficient to capture their precise pattern, this study aims to unveil the nonlinear impact of CSR and innovation on CFP, especially when construction firms take up a distinct competitive position.
Design/methodology/approach
This study first proposed four hypotheses to establish a new theoretical model by incorporating CSR, innovation, CFP and construction firms' competitive position (CFCP). Then the model was tested by using 292 annual observations collected from 75 construction firms in China. A multiple regression model analysis was carried out to analyze the survey data and validate the hypotheses.
Findings
The results reveal that both CSR and innovation have a U-shaped impact on the price-to-book ratio of a construction firm, a specific CFP measure. CFCP negatively moderates the U-shaped relationship between CSR and CFP, but positively moderates the U-shaped relationship between innovation and CFP.
Originality/value
This study goes beyond a simple linear view, instead of unveiling the nonlinear U-shaped effects of CSR and innovation on CFP that deepen the understanding of their complex relationships in the construction industry and makes construction firms aware that CSR and innovation can only improve performance if they reach a certain level. The moderating role of CFCP provides important implications for construction firms seeking to adopt appropriate competitive strategies related to social responsibility and innovation that both promote CFP and achieve sustainable development.