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This research aims to examine which cooperative contract (wholesale-price contract or cost-sharing contract) can more effectively upgrade the green degree of product and promote demand when considering consumer reference price effect under different power structures.

This research investigates a dyadic green supply chain composed of one manufacturer and one retailer. Four Stackelberg game models with a cost-sharing contract or a wholesale-price contract are built in retailer-led and manufacturer-led scenarios, respectively. Using backward induction, the optimal green decision under each model is obtained. In addition, the optimal cooperative contract is proposed by comparing these four models.

It is found that under consumer reference price effect, a cost-sharing contract outperforms a wholesale-price contract in upgrading product greenness and promoting demand. Under any single contract, the retailer-led situation is more conducive to improving product greenness than the manufacturer-led situation. Moreover, consumer reference price effect would reduce the sharing ratio of a cost-sharing contract when the manufacturer dominates, but it could mitigate the problem of double marginalization by reducing wholesale and retail prices under both types of contracts, which would enhance consumer surplus.

It is a new attempt to incorporate consumer reference price effect and power structure into a green supply chain framework and proposes a novel demand function that simultaneously emphasizes consumer reference price effect, consumer environmental awareness and product green attribute. In addition, it provides managerial insights for business managers to choose green cooperative contracts with consumer reference price effect under different power structures.

As the complexity and uncertainty of infrastructural megaprojects challenge traditional management models, there is an increasing focus on value co-creation as an organizational strategy to streamline management. However, the role of value co-creation behavior in facilitating the value realization process remains underexplored. This study examines how justice perception (distributive, procedural and interactional justice) improves contractor value co-creation behavior, focusing on the mediating role of psychological ownership.

Ten hypotheses in the proposed research model were tested through partial least squares structural equation modeling using 199 valid questionnaires from China.

The results show that contractor value co-creation behavior is directly and positively influenced by procedural, distributive and interactional justice and indirectly influenced by them through the underlying psychological mechanism of psychological ownership.

The findings fill a knowledge gap by examining the effect of justice perception on contractor value co-creation behavior based on social exchange theory. Discovering justice perception will contribute to contractor value co-creation behavior, and psychological ownership mediates this relationship.

Decision-making problems in emergency plan selection for epidemic prevention and control (EPAC) are generally characterized by risky and uncertainty due to multiple possible emergency states and vagueness of decision information. In the process of emergency plan selection for EPAC, it is necessary to consider several obvious features, i.e. different states of epidemics, dynamic evolvement process of epidemics and decision-makers' (DMs') psychological factors such as risk preference and loss aversion.

In this paper, a novel decision-making method based on cumulative prospect theory (CPT) is proposed to solve emergency plan selection of an epidemic problem, which is generally regarded as hybrid-information multi-attribute decision-making (HI-MADM) problems in major epidemics. Initially, considering the psychological factors of DMs, the expectations of DMs are chosen as reference points to normalize the expectation vectors and decision information with three different formats. Subsequently, the matrix of gains and losses is established according to the reference points. Furthermore, the prospect value of each alternative is obtained and the comprehensive prospect values of alternatives under different states are calculated. Accordingly, the ranking of alternatives can be obtained.

The validity and robustness of the proposed method are demonstrated by a case calculation of emergency plan selection. Meanwhile, sensitivity analysis and comparison analysis with fuzzy similarity to ideal solution (FTOPSIS) method and TODIM (an acronym in Portuguese for interactive and MADM) method illustrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method.

An emergency plan selection method is proposed for EPAC based on CPT, taking into account the psychological factors of DMs.

Highlights

1. This paper proposes a new CPT-based EDM method for EPAC under a major epidemic considering the psychological factorsof DMs, such as risk preference, loss aversion and so on.

2. The authors' work gives approaches of normalization, comparison and distance measurement for dealing with the integration of three hybrid formats of attributes.

3. This article gives some guidance, which contributes to solve the problems of risk-based hybrid multi-attribute EDM.

4. The authors illustrate the advantages of the proposed method by a sensitivity analysis and comparison analysis with existing FTOPSIS method and TODIM method.

This paper proposes a new CPT-based EDM method for EPAC under a major epidemic considering the psychological factorsof DMs, such as risk preference, loss aversion and so on.

The authors' work gives approaches of normalization, comparison and distance measurement for dealing with the integration of three hybrid formats of attributes.

This article gives some guidance, which contributes to solve the problems of risk-based hybrid multi-attribute EDM.

The authors illustrate the advantages of the proposed method by a sensitivity analysis and comparison analysis with existing FTOPSIS method and TODIM method.

In recent years, continuous expansion of the scale of the new energy export industry in China caused a boycott of American and European countries. Export injury early warning research is an urgent task to develop the new energy industry in China. The purpose of this paper is to build an indicator system of exports injury early warning of the new energy industry in China and corresponding quantitative early warning models.

In consideration of the actual condition of the new energy industry in China, this paper establishes an indicator system according to four aspects: export price, export quantity, impact on domestic industry and impact on macro economy. Based on the actual data of new energy industry and its five sub-industries (solar, wind, nuclear power, smart grid and biomass) in China from 2003 to 2013, GM (1,1) model is used to predict early warning index values for 2014-2018. Then, the principal component analysis (PCA) is used to obtain the comprehensive early warning index values for 2003-2018. The 3-sigma principle is used to divide the early warning intervals according to the comprehensive early warning index values for 2003-2018 and their standard deviation. Finally, this paper determines alarm degrees for 2003-2018.

Overall export condition of the new energy industry in China is a process from cold to normal in 2003-2013, and the forecast result shows that it will be normal from 2014 to 2018. The export condition of the solar energy industry experienced a warming process, tended to be normal, and the forecast result shows that it will also be normal in 2014-2018. The biomass and other new energy industries and nuclear power industry show a similar development process. Export condition of the wind energy industry is relatively unstable, and it will be partially hot in 2014-2018, according to the forecast result. As for the smart grid industry, the overall export condition of it is normal, but it is also unstable, in few years it will be partially hot or partially cold. The forecast result shows that in 2014-2018, it will maintain the normal state. In general, there is a rapid progress in the export competitiveness of the new energy industry in China in the recent decade.

Export injury early warning research of the new energy industry can help new energy companies to take appropriate measures to reduce trade losses in advance. It can also help the relevant government departments to adjust industrial policies and optimize the new energy industry structure.

This paper constructs an index system that can measure the alarm degrees of the new energy industry. By combining the GM (1,1) model and the PCA method, the problem of warning condition detection under small sample data sets is solved.

Using Chinese A-share listed firms between 2007 and 2020 with 21,380 observations, we aim to examine the impact of cross-ownership on firms’ innovation output and explore the underlying mechanisms.

To test the influence of cross-ownership on firms’ innovation output, this paper constructs an ordinary least square regression model. The explained variables are firms’ innovation output, including the total number of patent applications (Apply) and the number of invention patent applications (Apply_I). Considering the long period of patent R&D, we take the value of the explained variables in the following year for regression. Cross-ownership (Cross) is the explanatory variable; Control is the control variable; and ε is the regression residual term.

We find that cross-ownership significantly promotes corporate innovation output, indicating that cross-owners play an important role in “collaborative governance.” This finding remains unchanged after conducting a series of robustness tests. We also find that cross-ownership contributes to innovation output mainly through two plausible channels: the relaxation of financing constraints and reducing both types of agency costs. Further analysis shows that cross-ownership has a more pronounced influence on innovation output in those firms with higher equity restriction ratios and facing more competitive markets. Moreover, cross-ownership has a profound impact on firms’ innovation quality and innovation efficiency, thereby increasing firm value.

This study provides important policy implications. First, cross-owners should actively play their resource and supervision advantages to improve firms’ long-term development capability through the “collaborative governance” effect. Second, listed companies in China should be fully aware of the value of the cross-ownership and use the cross-ownership as a bridge to strengthen the cooperative relationship with firms in the same portfolio. Meanwhile, they need to pay attention to cross-ownership’s “collaborative governance” effect to provide an impetus for the healthy development of enterprises. Finally, government regulators should maintain appropriate supervision of the cross-ownership linkage in the market.

Our findings show that cross-ownership significantly contributes to firms’ innovation output, indicating that cross-owners play the role of “collaborative governance.” While paying attention to the collusion effect of the cross-ownership, they shall not ignore its governance effect, for example, the promotion effect on the innovation level. Government regulators should appropriately supervise the cross-ownership linkage, which is conducive to maintaining the market order and driving the healthy development of the capital market.

This study aims to explore the effect of urban green space (UGS) on residents' subjective well-being (SWB) among different social groups.

Using national SWB and UGS data obtained from the China Urban Construction Statistical Yearbook and the Chinese General Social Survey, a multiple regression model was developed to estimate the effect of UGS on residents' SWB. Grouping regression for samples from distinct socioeconomic groups was performed to further discuss group-wise differences in SWB.

The green coverage rate of built-up areas and the number of parks accessed by every 10,000 individuals are significantly positively correlated with residents' SWB, whereas the green space area per capita and greening investment ratio are significantly negatively correlated with residents' SWB; the effect of UGS on residents' SWB varies among individuals with respect to gender, age, and income, with the most significant difference observed among groups with different incomes.

The empirical results of this study are expected to support the planning and construction of UGS by providing a reference for optimizing their service capabilities and highlighting their positive role in improving residents' SWB.

Advertisements facilitate certain emotions, subsequently influencing purchase intentions. Humor, as an influential way of information expression, is frequently used in ads to elicit emotions. Drawing upon literature on advertisement humor and new product purchase intention and the theory of planned behavior, the study proposes that humor stimulation in advertisements can affect consumers' new product purchase intentions, in which two process mechanisms, namely, emotional arousal and cognitive flexibility, play a mediating effect.

To test the assertions, the authors conduct three experimental studies. The authors' first study assesses the main effect between advertisement humor and purchase intentions. In the second study, the authors show the mediating effects of emotional pleasure, emotional arousal, and cognitive flexibility on the relationship between advertisement humor and purchase intentions. In the first two experiments, the authors study incremental new products. In the third study, the authors study the same mediating relationships for radically new products.

This study's results show consumers that watch humorous ads are more likely to choose new products than those who watch non-humorous ads (Study 1); compared with non-humorous ads, humorous ads can enhance emotional arousal, thus promoting cognitive flexibility and making consumers more inclined to choose new products (Study 2 and Study 3). That said, the authors find that these mediation effects are only partial.

This study's results have important implications for firms vying to enhance consumers' new product purchase intentions by deploying humorous ads.

The aim of the research is to achieve a robot skin which is easy to use, and can detect both position and force interacted between robot and environments.

The new type of robot skin proposed in this paper includes two functional modules – contact position sensor and contact force sensor. The contact position sensor module is based on the resistor divider principle, which consists of two perpendicular conductive fiber layers and insulated dot spacer between them. The contact force sensor module is based on capacitance change theory, which consists of two soft conductive plates and a viscoelastic layer between them. By combining the two modules, the soft robot skin was designed.

Simulation and experiment results demonstrate that the proposed robot skin design is feasible and effective enough to sense contact position and contact force simultaneously.

This robot skin is low-cost and easy to make and use, which provides safety solutions for most of the robot.

For the first time, an integrated robot skin which can get contact position and force information simultaneously is designed. Unlike general tactile sensor matrices, this robot skin has only six leads. Furthermore, the number of leads does not increase with the enlarging of sensor area. Soft and simple structure of the robot skin makes it possible to cover any region of the robot body.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the mechanism and filter efficacy of accumulation generation operator (AGO)/inverse accumulation generation operator (IAGO) in the frequency domain.

The AGO/IAGO in time domain will be transferred to the frequency domain by the Fourier transform. Based on the consistency of the mathematical expressions of the AGO/IAGO in the gray system and the digital filter in digital signal processing, the equivalent filter model of the AGO/IAGO is established. The unique methods in digital signal processing systems “spectrum analysis” of AGO/IAGO are carried out in the frequency domain.

Through the theoretical study and practical example, benefit of spectrum analysis is explained, and the mechanism and filter efficacy of AGO/IAGO are quantitatively analyzed. The study indicated that the AGO is particularly suitable to act on the system's behavior time series in which the long period parts is the main factor. The acted sequence has good effect of noise immunity.

The AGO/IAGO has a wonderful effect on the processing of some statistical data, e.g. most of the statistical data related to economic growth, crop production, climate and atmospheric changes are mainly affected by long period factors (i.e. low-frequency data), and most of the disturbances are short-period factors (high-frequency data). After processing by the 1-AGO, its high frequency content is suppressed, and its low frequency content is amplified. In terms of information theory, this two-way effect improves the signal-to-noise ratio greatly and reduces the proportion of noise/interference in the new sequence. Based on 1-AGO acting, the information mining and extrapolation prediction will have a good effect.

The authors find that 1-AGO has a wonderful effect on the processing of data sequence. When the 1-AGO acts on a data sequence X, its low-pass filtering effect will benefit the information fluctuations removing and high-frequency noise/interference reduction, so the data shows a clear exponential change trends. However, it is not suitable for excessive use because its equivalent filter has poles at the non-periodic content. But, because of pol effect at zero frequency, the 1-AGO will greatly amplify the low-frequency information parts and suppress the high-frequency parts in the information at the same time.

This paper aims to focus on the basic principle of WO₃ gas sensors to achieve high gas-sensing performance with good stability and repeatability. Metal oxide-based gas sensors are widely used for monitoring toxic gas leakages in the environment, industries and households. For better livelihood and a healthy environment, it is extremely helpful to have sensors with higher accuracy and improved sensing features.

In the present review, the authors focus on recent synthesis methods of WO₃-based gas sensors to enhance sensing features towards toxic gases.

This work has proved that the synthesis method led to provide different morphologies of nanostructured WO₃-based material in turn to improve gas sensing performance along with its sensing mechanism.

In this work, the authors reviewed challenges and possibilities associated with the nanostructured WO₃-based gas sensors to trace toxic gases such as ammonia, H₂S and NO₂ for future research.