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The purpose of this paper is to explore the endogenous relationship between production specialisation and market commercialisation with an empirical study of farmers in Northwest China.

The three-stage least squares were used to address simultaneity and over-identification problems in comparison with two-stage least squares (2SLS). The Durbin-Wu-Hausman test was employed to identify the endogeneity of the commercialisation and specialisation variables. The validity, relevance, and strength of the instruments were tested using the Stock-Yogo weak instrument diagnostics test.

A two-way interrelationship between specialisation and commercialisation were confirmed, and suggest that farmers’ decisions on farm commercialisation and production specialisation are actually separate and interacting.

By demonstrating that a virtuous cycle exists between agricultural commercialisation and on-farm specialisation, policies can be formulated to complement these two effects that may help increase small holders’ income. Farmers’ market participation can be indirectly improved by combining market improvement and risk management tools to encourage production specialisation.

The insights of this study cast further light onto the farm market participation theory by emphasising that higher asset endowments enable small farmers to specialise in production with comparative advantage.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a numerical approaching analysis method combining the sequential unconstrained minimization technique and finite element method to identify the loading condition and geometry of smart structures accurately.

A new load identification model is built and the finite element approaching method is proposed by the combination of finite element method and optimization technique.

The approaching algorithm has good convergence and fast approximation speed; the accuracy can meet the engineering requirements. The approaching model is simple, and the precision is controllable and it can be used to solve the load identification problem of the smart material structure.

In view of the cited papers, the information sensed by the smart structure is limited, discrete and contains certain errors. How to derive the cause from the limited, error-containing discrete information is an important problem that needs to be solved by the self-diagnosis function. A load identification model based on structural displacement response is established and a numerical approximation method is proposed by combining the finite element method with the optimization technique; the load magnitude and position of the structure are identified according to the displacement measurement values of the internal finite point in the structure under the load condition.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between migration, remittances and agricultural productivity by applying the new economics of labor migration model in the context of north‐west China. The specific objectives are to examine the impacts of rural out‐migration on agricultural productivity in various farming systems, and whether remittances have been reinvested in agriculture.

Cross‐sectional household survey data from three townships were analyzed with the three‐stage least squares (3SLS) regression model.

In multi‐cropping small farming systems, at least in the short run, the loss resulting from losing family labour on lower‐return grain crop production is likely to be offset by the gain from investing in capital‐intensive and profitable cash crop production.

This study provides empirical evidence for the MELM theory. It expands Taylor et al.'s studies by comparing investment behavior and production choices among multiple farm activities, and enriches previous studies by showing that the relation between remittances and agricultural investment depends on the farm activities' profitability.

For survival and prosperity, enterprises need to simultaneously engage in exploitation and exploration. Digital transformation is of great significance to enterprise innovation. However, the impacts of digital transformation on exploitation and exploration remain unclear. Moreover, the impacts of technological diversity on the relationships between digital transformation and exploitation and exploration are also unknown.

Based on an integrated perspective of dynamic capability theory and organizational inertia theory and using data from Chinese listed enterprises from 2007 to 2020, this study clarifies the effects of digital transformation on exploitation and exploration and assesses the moderating effect of technological diversity.

The results show that digital transformation improves exploitation, but negatively impacts exploration. Technological diversity mitigates the negative effect of digital transformation on exploration, but the moderating effect on the relationship between digital transformation and exploitation is not significant.

This study contributes to the existing literature on the digital paradox and provides guidance for enterprises to clarify the direction of digital transformation.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of China’s Green Credit Guidelines (GCG) policy on the environmental, social and governance (ESG) scores of restricted enterprises and examine firm’s speculative behavior in response to the policy.

This paper views the GCG policy proposed in 2012 as a quasinatural experiment and uses difference-in-differences (DID) model to evaluate its influence on the ESG scores of Chinese nonfinancial A-share listed enterprises from 2007 to 2019. Robustness tests include the propensity score matching (PSM)–DID method and permutation tests.

The GCG policy significantly increases the ESG scores of restricted enterprises, particularly enhancing environmental (E) performance. However, it only improves the social (S) and governance (G) performance of firms heavily reliant on bank credit, indicating speculative behavior by enterprises. Increased Government attention, a higher proportion of female executives and more developed local green finance reduce speculative behavior, while executives with financial backgrounds promote it.

Governments should mandate standardized ESG reporting and monitor restricted enterprises, banks should monitor speculative behavior and firms should integrate ESG into their long-term strategies to support sustainable development.

The results provide evidence of the effectiveness of implementing the GCG policy in China and offer guidance for better promoting green credit policy in developing countries, contributing to the transition toward a more sustainable future.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to explore if the GCG policy’s asymmetric effects on ESG components are due to enterprise speculative behavior and examines the factors influencing this behavior, providing insights for regulators to better implement the GCG policy to promote sustainable development.

Grounded in the structural and relational inertia literature, this paper aims to investigate how two types of founding conditions – prior state ownership and a founder’s state career history – may individually and interactively affect the resource acquisition and organizing capability of firms.

This study uses a unique, large-scale survey of 480 manufacturing firms in China.

The findings show that prior state ownership is positively related to a firm’s resource acquisition, and the founder’s state career history moderates the relationship between prior state ownership and a firm’s organizing capability such that a founder with a state career history can help a privatized firm overcome its structural inertia and achieve superior organizing capabilities. However, it is found that a founder’s state career history is not associated with a firm’s resource acquisition or organizing capability.

First, this study is cross-sectional. Second, this paper refocuses on Chinese manufacturing firms in two regions only. Third, the authors do not have information on how long founders had been in state sector. Fourth, the measure of resource acquisition and organizational capability is a self-reported perceptual measure.

First, this study suggests that founders’ state career history does not benefit firms in resource acquisitions. Once founders do not work for government organizations, they can lose the associated resource benefits. The founders may have to actively maintain their historical connections with the current government officials to continue to receive various information and resource benefits. Second, this study indicates that it is possible for privatized firms to have resource acquisition advantages resulting from their historical heritage and at the same time overcome the inferior organizing capabilities from their histories by having a founder with a prior state career history. Such founders tend to have the ability to overcome the unfavorable imprinting effect of previous histories and to help private firms develop better strategies and structures to fit the dynamic and competitive environment.

This study indicates that it is possible for state-owned enterprises to become efficient if they can employ capable managers with superior managerial skills.

Current literature on the effect of government affiliations on firm behavior and outcomes typically focuses on existing government affiliations and their benefits on a firm’s economic and information resources, legitimacy and new venture performance. This study is one of the first to examine how historical government affiliations may affect both the resource acquisition and organizing capability of a firm. In addition, existing studies have rarely studied simultaneously how a firm’s and a founder’s historical government affiliations may independently and interactively affect a firm’s ability to acquire resources and develop capabilities critical for a firm’s performance and survival. This study fills this gap.

According to the survey and measurement on rural housing in the Northeast severe cold regions of China, this paper analyzed the existing situation and problems of current rural housing in terms of integral development, functional layout, envelop structure, interior thermal environment, heating system and energy utilization etc.. Based on the climatic features of severe cold regions, as well as rural financial and technical conditions, living and production mode, residential construction characteristics and existing resource status etc., the feasible approaches of achieving building energy saving has been proposed, thus acting as a guidance for new rural housing design in severe cold regions.

At the moment, in terms of both research and commercial products, smart shoe technology and applications seem not to attract the same magnitude of attention compared to smart garments and other smart wearables such as wrist watches and wrist bands. The purpose of this study is to fill this knowledge gap by discussing issues regarding smart shoe sensing technologies, smart shoe sensor placements, factors that affect sensor placements and finally the areas of smart shoe applications.

Through a review of relevant literature, this study first and foremost attempts to explain what constitutes a smart shoe and subsequently discusses the current trends in smart shoe applications. Discussed in this study are relevant sensing technologies, sensor placement and areas of smart shoe applications.

This study outlined 13 important areas of smart shoe applications. It also uncovered that majority of smart shoe functionality are physical activity tracking, health rehabilitation and ambulation assistance for the blind. Also highlighted in this review are some of the bottlenecks of smart shoe development.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first comprehensive review paper focused on smart shoe applications, and therefore serves as an apt reference for researchers within the field of smart footwear.

This paper aims to study the effects of various compatibilisers (maleic anhydride (MAH), methyl methacrylate/butyl acrylate emulsion lattice, and adhesion system (HRH)) on properties of carbon black (CB) filled with natural rubber (NR)/styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR)/ nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) blends). A series of NR/SBR/NBR blends at a 30/30/40 blend ratio reinforced with 45 phr of CB was prepared using the master-batch method.

The tensile properties such as the tensile strength, stress at 100, 200 and 300% elongations, and elongation at break (EB)% were studied. Additionally, the morphological properties of compatibilised and uncompatibilised composites were compared to determine the optimal compatibiliser content.

The influence of compatibilisers appeared on all the properties studied. The properties of the blends compatibilised with prepared emulsion are very distinct from those of blends compatibilised with MAH and adhesion systems.

Interactions among the different components of blends at the interfaces have a high impact on the interfacial properties of the rubber blend.

Compatibilisers significantly improve the physicomechanical properties of the resulting composites with the loading of investigated compatibilisers because of the uniform dispersion of CB in the rubber matrix.

Using blends in the rubber industry leads to high-efficiency production of low-cost products.

The rubber blending has a significant positive effect on a wide range of applications such as structural applications, aerospace, military, packaging, tires and biomedical. Hence, improving the compatibility of blends will make new materials suitable for new applications.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to empirical research on individual ambidexterity drivers. This paper analyzes the relationships between inclusive leadership, team knowledge acquisition, team knowledge sharing, digital tools usage and individual ambidexterity.

This study conducted a questionnaire survey of high-tech and manufacturing enterprises in China and obtained 75 leader questionnaires and 365 employee questionnaires. The hypotheses were tested using hierarchical and cross-level regressions.

The research indicates that inclusive leadership improves team knowledge acquisition and sharing. However, only team knowledge sharing significantly boosts individual ambidexterity, and not team knowledge acquisition. Thus, inclusive leadership fosters individual ambidexterity primarily through team knowledge sharing. Digital tools usage strengthens the impact of inclusive leadership on team knowledge sharing, thereby intensifying its effect on individual ambidexterity. However, digital tools usage weakens the effect of inclusive leadership on team knowledge acquisition.

First, this study addresses the call for research on ambidexterity at different levels, revealing the heterogeneous impact of team knowledge acquisition and sharing on individual ambidexterity. Second, this study developed a theoretical model to explore how leadership affects individual ambidexterity. Third, this study responds to the question that digitalization has won, but has leadership lost by investigating the role of digital tools usage in the relationship between inclusive leadership and team knowledge integration.