Lei Wen and Linlin Huang
Climate change has aroused widespread concern around the world, which is one of the most complex challenges encountered by human beings. The underlying cause of climate change is…
Abstract
Purpose
Climate change has aroused widespread concern around the world, which is one of the most complex challenges encountered by human beings. The underlying cause of climate change is the increase of carbon emissions. To reduce carbon emissions, the analysis of the factors affecting this type of emission is of practical significance.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper identified five factors affecting carbon emissions using the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) decomposition model (e.g. per capita carbon emissions, industrial structure, energy intensity, energy structure and per capita GDP). Besides, based on the projection pursuit method, this paper obtained the optimal projection directions of five influencing factors in 30 provinces (except for Tibet). Based on the data from 2000 to 2014, the authors predicted the optimal projection directions in the next six years under the Markov transfer matrix.
Findings
The results indicated that per capita GDP was the critical factor for reducing carbon emissions. The industrial structure and population intensified carbon emissions. The energy structure had seldom impacted on carbon emissions. The energy intensity obviously inhibited carbon emissions. The best optimal projection direction of each index in the next six years remained stable. Finally, this paper proposed the policy implications.
Originality/value
This paper provides an insight into the current state and the future changes in carbon emissions.
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Zhaozhao Tang, Wenyan Wu, Po Yang, Jingting Luo, Chen Fu, Jing-Cheng Han, Yang Zhou, Linlin Wang, Yingju Wu and Yuefei Huang
Surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors have attracted great attention worldwide for a variety of applications in measuring physical, chemical and biological parameters. However…
Abstract
Purpose
Surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors have attracted great attention worldwide for a variety of applications in measuring physical, chemical and biological parameters. However, stability has been one of the key issues which have limited their effective commercial applications. To fully understand this challenge of operation stability, this paper aims to systematically review mechanisms, stability issues and future challenges of SAW sensors for various applications.
Design/methodology/approach
This review paper starts with different types of SAWs, advantages and disadvantages of different types of SAW sensors and then the stability issues of SAW sensors. Subsequently, recent efforts made by researchers for improving working stability of SAW sensors are reviewed. Finally, it discusses the existing challenges and future prospects of SAW sensors in the rapidly growing Internet of Things-enabled application market.
Findings
A large number of scientific articles related to SAW technologies were found, and a number of opportunities for future researchers were identified. Over the past 20 years, SAW-related research has gained a growing interest of researchers. SAW sensors have attracted more and more researchers worldwide over the years, but the research topics of SAW sensor stability only own an extremely poor percentage in the total researc topics of SAWs or SAW sensors.
Originality/value
Although SAW sensors have been attracting researchers worldwide for decades, researchers mainly focused on the new materials and design strategies for SAW sensors to achieve good sensitivity and selectivity, and little work can be found on the stability issues of SAW sensors, which are so important for SAW sensor industries and one of the key factors to be mature products. Therefore, this paper systematically reviewed the SAW sensors from their fundamental mechanisms to stability issues and indicated their future challenges for various applications.
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Wan Jiang, Linlin Wang, Zhaofang Chu and Xifang Ma
The purpose of this paper is to examine how analyst recommendation change is associated with a firm’s magnitude of strategic change.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how analyst recommendation change is associated with a firm’s magnitude of strategic change.
Design/methodology/approach
This study argues that unfavorable analyst recommendation change serves as a powerful external assessment that current strategies are inappropriate and that changes are needed. This study also incorporates the moderating roles of CEO power and board’s informal hierarchy in the relationship between analyst recommendation change and firm’s magnitude of strategic change. Results from a sample of 824 observations generally support our predictions.
Findings
The findings of this study show that the greater the analysts downgrade for the company’s stock, the larger the magnitude of strategic change will be made. This study also considers the moderating roles of CEO power and the clarity of board’s informal hierarchy. In particular, the higher the CEO power, the weaker the relationship between analyst recommendation change and the magnitude of strategic change will be. The higher the clarity of board’s informal hierarchy, the more positive the relationship between analyst recommendation change and the magnitude of strategic change will be.
Originality/value
It extends research on the external predictors of strategic change by incorporating the role of unfavorable analyst recommendation change. In addition, it contributes to institutional theory by showing how external legitimacy pressure and internal corporate governance tool complement each other.
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Biwu Huang, Linlin Han, Baolin Wu, Wenbin Zhou and Zhenting Lu
The purpose of this study is to synthesize a new kind of a cationic-type UV-curing prepolymer diepoxycyclohexylethyl tetramethyldisiloxane, which is used to replace the current…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to synthesize a new kind of a cationic-type UV-curing prepolymer diepoxycyclohexylethyl tetramethyldisiloxane, which is used to replace the current prepolymers’ common cycloaliphatic epoxy resins to prepare a novel 3D printing stereolithography material.
Design/methodology/approach
Diepoxycyclohexylethyl tetramethyldisiloxane was characterized and analyzed by FT-IR and 1HMR. Diepoxycyclohexylethyl tetramethyldisiloxane was compounded with a polycaprolactone polyol, some acrylates and photoinitiators to prepare a novel 3D printing stereolithography resin (3DPSLR11). Optical properties of 3DPSLR11 were investigated by HRPL-150A stereolithography apparatus and INITELLI-RAY400 UV-curing system. Tensile mechanical properties of printed 3DPSLR11 specimens were tested by WDW-50-type universal testing machine, and the glass transition temperature (Tg) was determined by DMA. Rectangle plates and double-cantilever parts were fabricated by using the stereolithography apparatus with 3DPSLR11 as the printing material, and the dimension shrinkage factors and the curl factors of the parts were investigated.
Findings
The experimental results showed that the critical exposure (Ec) of the 3D printing 3DPSLR11 was 11.6 mJ/cm2, its penetration depth (Dp) was 0.18 mm, the tensile strength of the cured 3DPSLR11 was 40.1 MPa, the tensile modulus was 1,741.4 MPa, the elongation at break was 15.3%, Tg was 113°C, the dimension shrinkage factor was less than 0.85% and the curl factor was less than 8.00%.
Originality/value
In this work, a novel 3D printing 3DPSLR11 was prepared with diepoxycyclohexylethyl tetramethyldisiloxane as a main prepolymer. The novel 3DPSLR11 possessed excellent photosensitivity, and its cured products had good mechanical and thermal properties. The accuracy and resolution of the fabricated parts were high with 3DPSLR11 for stereolithography in 3D printing, which showed that 3DPSLR11 has potential application value as 3D printing material.
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Linlin Wang, Zhaofang Chu, Wan Jiang and Yifan Xu
This study aims to build on equity theory to assess the effect of chief executive officer (CEO) underpayment on the accumulation of firm-specific knowledge, accounting for the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to build on equity theory to assess the effect of chief executive officer (CEO) underpayment on the accumulation of firm-specific knowledge, accounting for the moderating effects of the CEO compensation gap and the clarity of the board’s informal hierarchy.
Design/methodology/approach
This study starts with all firms listed in the Execucomp database for the period 1992 to 2006. Then, all data sources are merged and entries with missing information are excluded. The final data set used for model estimations includes 1,152 firm-year observations. The command xtreg in Stata 12 with the fixed-effect option (fe) is used to estimate the relationship between CEO underpayment and firm-specific knowledge.
Findings
This study proposed and examined the role of CEO underpayment in discouraging CEO willingness to invest firm-specific human capital and, accordingly, to adopt a strategy of accumulating lower levels of firm-specific knowledge assets. The empirical analyses strongly support this argument. Moreover, CEO compensation gaps and the informal hierarchy of boards negatively moderated this relationship. That is, CEO underpayment had a weaker negative effect on firm-specific knowledge when the CEO compensation gap and the clarity of the board’s informal hierarchy were high.
Originality/value
Prior studies from the knowledge-based perspective have focused on the importance of firm-specific knowledge in enabling a firm to achieve superior financial performance. However, relatively little attention has been paid to CEOs’ willingness to accumulate firm-specific knowledge. The present study contributes to the knowledge-based view of the firm. This study integrates equity theory with the knowledge-based view of the firm by highlighting how unfair compensation of CEOs may discourage them to fully realize a firm’s potential to generate specific knowledge. By incorporating the fairness issue of CEO compensation into the knowledge-based view, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the origins of firm-specific knowledge.
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Xifang Ma, Wan Jiang, Linlin Wang and Jing Xiong
This study examined a curvilinear and moderated relationship between transformational leadership and employee creative performance in a real-world setting by drawing from the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examined a curvilinear and moderated relationship between transformational leadership and employee creative performance in a real-world setting by drawing from the too-much-of-a-good-thing effect and the substitutes for leadership perspectives.
Design/methodology/approach
We used multisource data collected from 232 employees and their immediate supervisors to test all hypotheses.
Findings
We found empirical support for an inverted U-shaped relationship between transformational leadership and employee creative performance. Moreover, job factor (i.e. job formalization) and individual differences (i.e. power distance) moderated the curvilinear relationship, such that the curvilinear relationship was more pronounced with lower job formalization or higher power distance of employees.
Originality/value
Our findings shed light on the inconsistent reports of transformational leadership's effects on employee creativity in previous studies. We extended substitutes for leadership perspective by providing a more systematic view for future research on how leadership and its substitutes jointly influence employee outcomes.
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Karine Dupre, Linlin Dai and Bixia Xu
In recent Chinese history, rural villages have suffered extensive depopulation due to the intensive urbanisation of the country. In the early 1990s, the rediscovery of villages…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent Chinese history, rural villages have suffered extensive depopulation due to the intensive urbanisation of the country. In the early 1990s, the rediscovery of villages for tourism purposes caused a change in approach to conservation policies and village management. Today, villages are subjected to climate change with mass tourism as a contributing factor. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate whether the village community is climate change aware and to identify best practises for it.
Design/methodology/approach
In this case study, the authors adopted a visual research technique called Photovoice. It is a research method which combines preliminary data collection and initial analysis processes. The main goals of adopting Photovoice are to enable community members to record and reflect their community’s strengths and concerns, to promote dialogue and knowledge exchange among community members regarding critical local social or environmental issues through small group discussion, and to report to policymakers.
Findings
This research demonstrated that both visitors and hosts shared common thoughts on tourism interests, impacts and current actions regarding climate change. Age, level of education or origin did not interfere and it shows a common awareness regarding the effects of climate change. It confirms the structural assumption that local and expertise knowledge are complementary.
Originality/value
At a time when awareness of climate change is affecting almost every debate concerning development strategies, future planning, governance and action implementations, very little has been written on the climate change impact on villages from a community perspective. Even less has been researched on what are called “urban rural villages”, that are villages located at the close periphery of a large urban agglomerations or cities in China.
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Xinghua Shan, Zhiqiang Zhang, Fei Ning, Shida Li and Linlin Dai
With the yearly increase of mileage and passenger volume in China's high-speed railway, the problems of traditional paper railway tickets have become increasingly prominent…
Abstract
Purpose
With the yearly increase of mileage and passenger volume in China's high-speed railway, the problems of traditional paper railway tickets have become increasingly prominent, including complexity of business handling process, low efficiency of ticket inspection and high cost of usage and management. This paper aims to make extensive references to successful experiences of electronic ticket applications both domestically and internationally. The research on key technologies and system implementation of railway electronic ticket with Chinese characteristics has been carried out.
Design/methodology/approach
Research in key technologies is conducted including synchronization technique in distributed heterogeneous database system, the grid-oriented passenger service record (PSR) data storage model, efficient access to massive PSR data under high concurrency condition, the linkage between face recognition service platforms and various terminals in large scenarios, and two-factor authentication of the e-ticket identification code based on the key and the user identity information. Focusing on the key technologies and architecture the of existing ticketing system, multiple service resources are expanded and developed such as electronic ticket clusters, PSR clusters, face recognition clusters and electronic ticket identification code clusters.
Findings
The proportion of paper ticket printed has dropped to 20%, saving more than 2 billion tickets annually since the launch of the application of E-ticketing nationwide. The average time for passengers to pass through the automatic ticket gates has decreased from 3 seconds to 1.3 seconds, significantly improving the efficiency of passenger transport organization. Meanwhile, problems of paper ticket counterfeiting, reselling and loss have been generally eliminated.
Originality/value
E-ticketing has laid a technical foundation for the further development of railway passenger transport services in the direction of digitalization and intelligence.
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Zhaofang Chu, Linlin Wang and Fujun Lai
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how customer pressure influences green innovation in the context of Chinese third-party logistics (3PL) providers, and especially the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how customer pressure influences green innovation in the context of Chinese third-party logistics (3PL) providers, and especially the role of organizational culture in moderating this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on survey data collected from 165 3PL providers in China, hierarchical moderated regression analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Customer pressure is an important driver of green innovation amongst 3PL providers. Flexibility-oriented organizational culture strengthens the effect of this driving force, while control-oriented organizational culture weakens this force. Green innovation significantly contributes to financial performance and flexibility orientation strengthens this contribution, while control orientation weakens it.
Research limitations/implications
This research examines the contingency effect of organizational culture in helping to resolve inconsistencies in the relationship between customer pressure and green innovation. Although the inconsistencies cannot be resolved completely, the research opens an avenue to explore other contingency factors or the possibility of a non-linear relationship.
Practical implications
3PL firms could undertake green innovation to satisfy customers’ environmental requirements. To develop their green innovation initiatives, managers should allow their employees greater autonomy and design (or re-design) operations procedures and regulations to be more flexible, thus enabling the diffusion of green innovation and avoiding or reducing the potential influence of control-oriented organization culture.
Originality/value
The study considers the conditional effect of organizational culture to reconcile the mixed results in the literature regarding the relationship between customer pressure and green innovation of logistics service providers.
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Jiawen Chen, Linlin Liu and Yong Wang
This study investigates business model innovation in small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) and its impact on firm growth.
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates business model innovation in small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) and its impact on firm growth.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was based on analyzing data collected through a questionnaire survey. Structural equation modeling was applied to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Business model innovation has a positive effect on SME growth in the manufacturing sectors. Moreover, growth is also achieved through the indirect effect of business model innovation on customer trust and commitment.
Practical implications
Managers will benefit from understanding how business model innovation can help their companies to overcome resource constraints and achieve sustained growth. When manufacturing SMEs engage in modular or structural changes to their business model, they may find it worthwhile to focus on maintaining a relationship of trust and commitment with their customers.
Originality/value
This study highlights business model innovation as a unique and important, yet underexplored, factor in manufacturing SME growth. The findings also untangle the complex processes of customer relationship management by which business model innovation improves manufacturing competitive advantage for SMEs.