According to human capital theory, companies derive economic value from the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) of their employees. Research conducted by strategic human…
Abstract
Purpose
According to human capital theory, companies derive economic value from the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) of their employees. Research conducted by strategic human resource management has focused on how investment in human capital can create a competitive advantage for an organization. The purpose of the paper is, therefore, to investigate how the choice of different human capital acquisition strategies – “make or buy” – can influence employee attitudes and behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
This study explores the relationship between internal and external human capital strategies and employee’s attitudes and behavior in Taiwan's IC (integrated circuit) design industry. The cross-sectional dataset derives from a sample of 49 human resource departments and 497 employees from 25 different IC design companies.
Findings
The findings indicate that the decisions made on human capital strategies have an important influence on employee’s attitude and behavior. The results also show that a climate of trust and perceived organizational support is a cross-level mechanism for both human capital strategy and employees' attitudes and behavior.
Originality/value
There has been little research on the cross-level analysis of human capital acquisition strategies that can influence employee’s attitudes and behavior. This study verified that internal and external human capital strategies do affect employees' individual perceptions of organizational support via the organizational-level climate of trust, which in turn influences employees' attitudes and behavior. This cross-level mechanism indeed will facilitate new insights into the nature of strategic human resource management.
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Shi Min, Xiaoheng Zhang and Gucheng Li
The objective is to have a better understanding of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food supply chain in Wuhan.
Abstract
Purpose
The objective is to have a better understanding of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food supply chain in Wuhan.
Design/methodology/approach
Through a simplified flow, the authors qualitatively analyze the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food supply chain. Data was gathered through a telephone survey of food suppliers in Wuhan.
Findings
The prevention measures of the COVID-19 pandemic had negative impacts on food supply chain in Wuhan. About 83.1% of food suppliers experienced a decrease in revenues. This is influenced by factors including food category on sale, purchase channel of food, food supplier's household registration and the number of the COVID-19 patients in the located community.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the limitation of available data, there is a lack of quantitative analysis on the impact on food supply chain. The sample size of food suppliers is limited.
Practical implications
This study identifies the challenges in the food supply chain resulting from the control measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan and provides a reference for the design of control measures in other regions.
Originality/value
This study supplements the literature regarding the impact of public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic on food supply chain, especially food suppliers' revenues.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential causes of the reduction of cotton cultivation in Shandong Province of China from the perspective of smallholders and notably…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential causes of the reduction of cotton cultivation in Shandong Province of China from the perspective of smallholders and notably examine the role of off-farm employment.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper extends an integrated behavioral model to analyze the relationship between off-farm employment and cotton cultivation by taking into account farmers’ risk attitudes. A household survey data of 144 Bt cotton farmers in six villages in Linqing County, Shandong Province conducted in 2012 and 2013 is used. A simultaneous equations model is established and further estimated by using three-stage least squares method.
Findings
Although the introduction of Bt cotton has promoted the increase in cotton acreage in China from 1999 to 2007, the planting area of cotton has been decreasing since 2007. The results show the significant correlations among risk attitude, off-farm employment, and cotton cultivation. The planting area of cotton is positively correlated with farmers’ willingness to take risk but negatively associated with off-farm employment of family members. The findings imply that the rapid emergence of off-farm labor markets is a major reason for the reduction of cotton acreage in Shandong Province. In the context of the more opportunities of off-farm employment in China, cotton acreage is expected to decrease further.
Originality/value
The findings provide a reasonable explanation for the reduction of cotton cultivation in Shandong. This analysis contributes to a better understanding of the relationships among individual risk attitude, off-farm employment, and agricultural behavior, thereby adding to the literature about the application of the integrated behavioral model.
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Shi Min, Jikun Huang and Hermann Waibel
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of farmers’ risk perceptions regarding rubber farming on their land use choices, including rubber specialization and crop…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of farmers’ risk perceptions regarding rubber farming on their land use choices, including rubber specialization and crop diversification.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional survey data of some 600 smallholder rubber farmers in Xishuangbanna in Southwest China is employed. This paper develops a general conceptual framework that incorporates a subjective risk item into a model of farmers’ land use choices, thereby developing four econometric models to estimate the role of risk perceptions, and applies instrumental variables to control for the endogeneity of risk perceptions.
Findings
The results demonstrate that risk perceptions play an important role in smallholders’ decision-making regarding land use strategies to address potential risks in rubber farming. Smallholders with higher risk perceptions specialize in rubber farming less often and are more likely to diversify their land use, thereby contributing to local environmental conservation in terms of agrobiodiversity. The land use choices of smallholder rubber farmers are also associated with ethnicity, household wealth, off-farm employment, land tenure status, altitude and rubber farming experience.
Originality/value
This study contributes to a better understanding of the implications of farmers’ risk perceptions and shows entry points for improving the sustainability of rubber-based land use systems.
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Zhongxiang Fu, Buqing Cao, Shanpeng Liu, Qian Peng, Zhenlian Peng, Min Shi and Shangli Liu
With the exponential growth of mobile applications, recommending suitable mobile applications to users becomes a critical challenge. Although existing methods have made…
Abstract
Purpose
With the exponential growth of mobile applications, recommending suitable mobile applications to users becomes a critical challenge. Although existing methods have made achievements in mobile application recommendation by leveraging graph convolutional networks (GCNs), they suffer from two limitations: the reliance on a singular acquisition path leads to signal sparsity, and the neighborhood aggregation method exacerbates the adverse impact of noisy interactions. This paper aims to propose SMAR, a self-supervised mobile application recommendation approach based on GCN, which is designed to overcome existing challenges by using self-supervised learning to create an auxiliary task.
Design/methodology/approach
In detail, this method uses three distinct data augmentation techniques node dropout, edge dropout and random walk, which create varied perspectives of each node. Then compares these perspectives, aiming to ensure uniformity across different views of the same node while maintaining the differences between separate nodes. Ultimately, auxiliary task is combined with the primary supervised task using a multi-task learning framework, thereby refining the overall mobile application recommendation process.
Findings
Extensive experiments on two real datasets demonstrate that SMAR achieves better Recall and NDCG performances than other strong baselines, validating the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Originality/value
In this paper, the authors introduce self-supervised learning into mobile application recommendation approach based on GCNs. This method enhances traditional supervised tasks by using auxiliary task to provide additional information, thereby improving signal accuracy and reducing the influence of noisy interactions in mobile application recommendations.
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The purpose of this paper is to provide the historical background of genealogical records and analyze the value of Chinese genealogical research through the study of names and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide the historical background of genealogical records and analyze the value of Chinese genealogical research through the study of names and genealogical resources.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper examines the historical evolution and value of Chinese genealogical records, with the focus on researching the Islamic Chinese names used by the people living in Guilin. The highlight of this paper includes the analysis and evolution of the Islamic Chinese names commonly adopted by the local people in Guilin. It concludes with the recommendations on emphasizing and making the best use of genealogical records to enhance the research value of Chinese overseas studies.
Findings
The paper covers the history of Islam and describes how the religion was introduced into China, as well as Muslims' ethnicity and identity. It also places focus on the importance of building a research collection in Asian history and Chinese genealogy.
Research limitations/implications
This research study has a strong subject focus on Chinese genealogy, Asian history, and Islamic Chinese surnames. It is a narrow field that few researchers have delved into.
Practical implications
The results of this study will assist students, researchers, and the general public in tracing the origin of their surnames and developing their interest in the social and historical value of Chinese local history and genealogies.
Social implications
The study of Chinese surnames is, by itself, a particular field for researching the social and political implications of contemporary Chinese society during the time the family members lived.
Originality/value
Very little research has been done in the area of Chinese local history and genealogy. The paper would be of value to researchers such as historians, sociologists, ethnologists and archaeologists, as well as students and anyone interested in researching a surname origin, its history and evolution.
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Xinyu Zhao, Mohamed Omran and Shi-Min How
Drawing on a mission approach, this study investigates the application of integrated reporting (IR). It also explores its role in shaping organisations' internal processes in…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on a mission approach, this study investigates the application of integrated reporting (IR). It also explores its role in shaping organisations' internal processes in Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and the China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN).
Design/methodology/approach
We employed a case study method and collected data by conducting semi-structured interviews with CGN managers and analysing their reports and appropriate documents.
Findings
Our findings reveal that the CGN is motivated by its mission and vision to adopt IR rather than by other common motivations, such as legitimacy, strategy and stakeholder pressure. IR practice contributes to implementing its mission and vision through direct and indirect methods, covering the changes in design archetypes and subsystems that meet the nature of reorientation changes that belong to first-order transition.
Research limitations/implications
This study extends empirical evidence of IR at the firm level in China and provides in-depth insights into how IR is implemented in Chinese SOEs. Our findings may be helpful for policymakers to review and develop policies. For instance, the government might consider integrating IR frameworks into current reporting and mandate listed companies to adopt IR. However, our data are from one company, the only Mainland Chinese Company recognised by the IIRC database.
Originality/value
This study provides an innovative approach to analysing IR and offers managers insight into how IR practice benefits the mission’s implications.
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Lai Wan Hooi, Min-Shi Liu and Joe J.J. Lin
Drawing on the Ability–Motivation–Opportunity (AMO) theory, this study aims to test the effect of green human resource management (G-HRM) on green organizational citizenship…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the Ability–Motivation–Opportunity (AMO) theory, this study aims to test the effect of green human resource management (G-HRM) on green organizational citizenship behavior (G-OCB) taking into consideration green culture as the mediator and green values as the moderator.
Design/methodology/approach
Valid data from 240 entities collected in Taiwan were analyzed to test the five hypotheses. The valid data were analyzed using confirmatory factor model, correlation analysis, structural equation modeling and bootstrapping analysis.
Findings
The results for all relationships show significant associations. G-HRM is significantly associated with G-OCB and green culture, while green culture is significantly related to G-OCB. The mediating effect of green culture on the G-HRM-G-OCB relationship is significant. The moderating effect of green values on the green culture–G-OCB relationship is significant.
Originality/value
The originality of this study lies in being one of the first study in an advanced emerging economy utilizing the AMO theory.
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Min-Shi Liu, Mei-Ling Wang and Chun Hsien Lee
The purpose of this study is to examine the indirect impact of job demands on recovery self-efficacy via the mediation of job burnout. The study also investigates the moderating…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the indirect impact of job demands on recovery self-efficacy via the mediation of job burnout. The study also investigates the moderating effects of school-to-work facilitation and psychological detachment in the indirect relationship between job demands and recovery self-efficacy.
Design/methodology/approach
The study recruited and surveyed 263 employed graduate students in the executive master of business administration program in Taiwan. Regression analysis was used to examine the proposed relationships.
Findings
The results showed that job burnout mediated the relationship between job demands and recovery self-efficacy. The relationship was weaker when school-to-work facilitation and psychological detachment were high.
Originality/value
This study confirms the indirect effects of job demands on recover self-efficacy through job burnout and provides new insights into the role of school-to-work facilitation and psychological detachment to enhance the recovery in the JD-R model.