Sheng Xu, Mengge Zhang, Bo Xia and Jiangbo Liu
This study aimed to identify driving factors of safety attitudinal ambivalence (AA) and explore their influence. Construction workers' intention to act safely can be instable…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to identify driving factors of safety attitudinal ambivalence (AA) and explore their influence. Construction workers' intention to act safely can be instable under conflicting information from safety management, co-workers and habitual unsafe behaviour. Existing research explained the mechanism of unsafe behaviours as individual decisions but failed to include AA, as the co-existence of both positive and negative attitude.
Design/methodology/approach
This study applied system dynamics to explore factors of construction workers' AA and simulate the process of mitigating the ambivalence for less safety behaviour. Specifically, the group model building approach with eight experts was used to map the causal loop diagram and field questionnaire of 209 construction workers were used to collect empirical data for initiating parameters.
Findings
The group model building identified five direct factors of AA, namely the organisational safety support, important others' safety attitude, emotional arousal, safety production experience and work pressure, with seven feedback paths. The questionnaire survey obtained the initial values of the factors in the SD model, with the average ambivalence at 0.389. The ambivalence between cognitive and affective safety attitude was the highest. Model simulation results indicated that safety experience and work pressure had the most significant effects, and safety experience and positive attitude of co-workers could compensate the pressure from tight schedule and budget.
Originality/value
This study provided a new perspective of the dynamic safety attitude under the co-existence of positive and negative attitude, identified its driving factors and their influencing paths. The group model building approach and field questionnaire surveys were used to provide convincible suggestions for empirical safety management with least and most effective approaches and possible interventions to prevent unsafe behaviour with tight schedule and budget.
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Sheng Xu, Linfeng Zhou and Patrick X.W. Zou
The quality liability of prefabricated components (PCs) is a major issue among key stakeholders. The blockchain-based quality tracking systems are supposed to support a more…
Abstract
Purpose
The quality liability of prefabricated components (PCs) is a major issue among key stakeholders. The blockchain-based quality tracking systems are supposed to support a more transparent and trusting quality control process. However, many factors affect the stakeholders' willingness toward the adoption of such quality tracking systems. The purpose of this research is to investigate the key factors that influence the stakeholders' adoption decisions toward the application of the quality tracking system in PCs and develop coping strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
An evolutionary game model is established that includes the manufacturer, constructor and developer. Four scenarios of equilibriums and the game's evolutionary stable strategies are analyzed, and the corresponding stability conditions are then obtained. Based on the tripartite game model, two representative projects are used as case studies to simulate how different factors affect the stakeholders' decisions.
Findings
First, trade-offs between cost and benefits were the most prominent factor in the adoption decision-making. Second, the advancement of technologies would compensate for their immaturity. Third, subsidy and penalty provision of the developer and high-level trust both incentivize the stakeholders to adopt the quality tracking systems.
Originality/value
This research investigates the influence of technology, environment and participant related factors on the adoption decisions of the quality tracking system for PCs and discovered that technology maturity and advancement played an essential role. It is expected that the research findings would be of value to policy makers and project management personnel for better quality control of prefabricated construction.
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Ya-long Wei, Dan Long, Yao-kuang Li and Xu-sheng Cheng
The purpose of this paper is to build a research model to examine the effects of business planning on the new venture emergence, as well as to examine the moderating effects of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to build a research model to examine the effects of business planning on the new venture emergence, as well as to examine the moderating effects of innovativeness of products.
Design/methodology/approach
Four hypotheses are put forward and examined by hierarchical binary logistic regression. The data of this paper are based on the first two waves of data from Chinese Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics project.
Findings
Results show that engaging in business planning has a positive effect on the new venture emergence, and the timing of business planning does not affect the new venture emergence significantly. This study also finds that the innovativeness of products has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between the timing of business planning and the new venture emergence.
Research limitations/implications
This study has some limitations. The innovativeness of products is measured by a single indicator, which may not completely reflect the meaning of the attribute. Moreover, this study explores new ventures only in the nascent stage.
Practical implications
The study is useful for entrepreneurs to realize the importance of business planning. First, engaging in business planning in early start-up stage is a very valuable activity, because business planning can help new ventures reduce the loss caused by trial and error learning. Second, engaging in business planning is more likely to ensure high innovative products quickly be accepted by the market. Because in the process of new venture emergence, the legitimacy signal to stakeholders can be transmitted and new products can be promoted to get support and recognition from stakeholder through the business plan.
Originality/value
This paper focuses on the early stage of new venture life cycle and the contextual factors to explore the influence of business planning on the new venture emergence under the logic of legitimacy. This paper could enrich business planning research from the perspective of legitimacy theory by inspiring scholars to focus on the differences between new ventures and mature enterprises and to offer proposals of legitimation strategies suitable for new ventures. Meanwhile, this study contributes to the understanding of the contextual factors of business planning. And it discusses the impact of the attribute in business planning on the new venture emergence, which helps scholars to get a deep thought about the value of business planning in entrepreneurial process.
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With the Chinese marine economy developing rapidly, the environmental problem has been occurring frequently, which needs green finance that supports energy conservation…
Abstract
Purpose
With the Chinese marine economy developing rapidly, the environmental problem has been occurring frequently, which needs green finance that supports energy conservation, environmental protection, and sustainable development to solve.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the entropy method is used to measure the development level of green finance, the DEA-ML index is used to measure the green total factor productivity which is used to indicate the high-quality development level of the marine economy in 11 coastal provinces (cities), then the grey correlation degree between them whose result shows that there is a certain correlation between the two variables is calculated. The fixed-effect model was used to analyze the relationship between them.
Findings
The results show that the development level of green finance can promote the high-quality development of the marine economy, but there are still some problems in the process of green finance supporting the marine economy.
Originality/value
This paper seeks new growth drivers, green finance, for the high-quality development of the marine economy, which few scholars have studied.
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Sheng Xu, Qingde Yue and Binbin Lu
The implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy is of practical significance for improving the quality and efficiency of economic growth and accelerating the…
Abstract
Purpose
The implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy is of practical significance for improving the quality and efficiency of economic growth and accelerating the transformation of economic development mode. The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of innovation-driven strategies on marine industry agglomeration and industrial transformation.
Design/methodology/approach
In traditional grey correlation analysis, when the positive and negative areas cancel each other out during the integration process, the calculation result of the correlation degree is often inconsistent with the qualitative analysis. For this reason, from the perspective of curve similarity, this paper constructs two response curves through the relative change area of the two curves and the relative area change ratio of similar degree, thus constructing an improved grey relational model.
Findings
The authors find that the innovation investment has a better correlation with marine industrial agglomeration. It also found that Guangdong Province has the highest degree of correlation between innovation indicators and marine industrial agglomeration. Much beyond the authors’ expectation, in the areas where marine industrial agglomeration is high, the synergistic effect is not obvious by using the location entropy method.
Originality/value
The improved grey correlation analysis method can effectively overcome the phenomenon that the positive and negative areas cancel each other in the integration process of the original algorithm, and it can also effectively measure the negative correlation between variables. This paper explores the impact of innovation drive on the agglomeration of marine industries, which is of great significance to the sustainable development of marine economy.
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Yucheng Zhang and Stephen J. Frenkel
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how part-time waiters perceive and respond to abusive supervision by the owner-manager of a small restaurant.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how part-time waiters perceive and respond to abusive supervision by the owner-manager of a small restaurant.
Design/methodology/approach
An ethnographic approach was used to collect data. One of the authors worked as a participant observer for three months. In addition, 13 interviews and three focus group discussions were conducted.
Findings
Data analysis showed how neutral identification based on a primary identity—liu xu sheng (overseas student)—overshadows employees’ occupational identity (waiter), which helps waiters to cope with abusive supervision.
Originality/value
Development and application of the concept of neutral organizational identification orientation encourages emotional suppression and reframing, leading to waiters’ indifference and acquiescence in abusive supervision. Implications are drawn for theory and the practice of managing part-time and temporary workers.
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Yue-tang Bian, Lu Xu, Jin-Sheng Li and Xia-qun Liu
The purpose of this paper is to explore the evolvement of investors’ behavior in stock market dynamically on the basis of non-cooperative strategy applied by investors in complex…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the evolvement of investors’ behavior in stock market dynamically on the basis of non-cooperative strategy applied by investors in complex networks.
Design/methodology/approach
Using modeling and simulation research method, this study designs and conducts a mathematical modeling and its simulation experiment of financial market behavior according to research’s basic norms of complex system theory and methods. Thus the authors acquire needed and credible experimental data.
Findings
The conclusions drawn in this paper are as follows. The dynamical evolution of investors’ trading behavior is not only affected by the stock market network structure, but also by the risk dominance degree of certain behavior. The dynamics equilibrium of trading behavior’s evolvement is directly influenced by the risk dominance degree of certain behavior, connectivity degree and the heterogeneity of the stock market networks.
Research limitations/implications
This paper focuses on the dynamical evolvement of investors’ behavior on the basis of the hypothesis that common investors prefer to mimic their network neighbors’ behavior through different analysis by the strategy of anti-coordination game in complex network. While the investors’ preference and the beliefs among them are not easy to quantify, that is deterministic or stochastic as the environment changes, and is heterogeneous definitely. Thus, these limitations should be broken through in the future research.
Originality/value
This paper aims to address the dynamical evolvement of investors’ behavior in stock market networks on the principle of non-cooperative represented by anti-coordination game in networks for the first time, considering that investors prefer to mimic their network neighbors’ behavior through different analysis by the strategy of differential choosing in every time step. The methodology designed and used in this study is a pioneering and exploratory experiment.
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The paper aims to focus on the definition, meaning and functions of knowledge innovation culture (KIC) of libraries, its influencing factors and some strategies to develop it.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to focus on the definition, meaning and functions of knowledge innovation culture (KIC) of libraries, its influencing factors and some strategies to develop it.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper gives a definition of KIC, discusses its meaning and functions, analyzes several influencing factors, and suggests some strategies and provides a case study.
Findings
The paper finds that the KIC of libraries is a kind of value, behavior and institutional system, which gains competitive advantages and sustainable development of libraries through knowledge creation. This kind of culture is different form traditional library culture and has several specific functions. Some factors like environment, resources and business may affect the development of KIC of libraries. Therefore, it is necessary for libraries to establish environment beneficial to knowledge innovation, enhance trust and cooperation within staffs, create a kind of learning culture, shape knowledge‐based team organization, enhance human resource development and cultivate knowledge innovation talents in order to build up KIC of libraries.
Originality/value
The paper demonstrates how libraries can develop KIC.
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Yin Zhou, Wei Yang and Guijun Zhuang
The purpose of this study is to develop a better understanding of how relational embeddedness offers marketing channel partners both benefits and hazards. The nonlinear effect of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop a better understanding of how relational embeddedness offers marketing channel partners both benefits and hazards. The nonlinear effect of relational embeddedness on channel opportunism is investigated. Influence strategies (i.e. coercive and noncoercive influence) are also examined as mediators of this nonlinear effect.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data are gathered from a sample of 149 manufacturers in China. The hypotheses are tested through regression analysis.
Findings
The results support the hypothesis that relational embeddedness has a U-shaped effect on opportunism, and that this relationship can be mediated through noncoercive influence strategies. The results also indicate that coercive influence has an inverted U-shaped effect and noncoercive influence has a U-shaped effect on opportunism.
Research limitations/implications
This research serves as a launching point for further investigations into the “black box” of the double-edged effects of relational embeddedness. Other channel behavior constructs can be explored in future studies.
Practical implications
Firms should be aware of the benefits and pitfalls associated with relational embeddedness in marketing channels. They should be alert to using influence strategies when managing channel opportunism.
Originality/value
This study addresses the dilemma of embeddedness in marketing channel relationships and reveals its causes and mechanisms by exploring the mediating effects of influence strategies.
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Sheng Xu, Hao Wei Wang, Xing Zhang and Weiping He
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the corrosion behaviors of 2A12 aluminum alloy in NaCl and EXCO solution, and establish the relationship between the corrosion depth…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the corrosion behaviors of 2A12 aluminum alloy in NaCl and EXCO solution, and establish the relationship between the corrosion depth and the time.
Design/methodology/approach
Alternate immersion corrosion test chamber was used to perform the corrosion test. The corrosion mediums were 3.5 percent NaCl solution and EXCO solution (NaCl 234 g/L, KNO3 50 g/L, 68 percent HNO3 6.8 mL/L). The surface morphology was studied using the digital microscope.
Findings
The average corrosion rate of aluminum alloy in NaCl solution decreased gradually at the initial stage and then went to a plateau value. The average corrosion rate of aluminum alloy in EXCO solution increased first, then showed a downward trend. The empirical function D=At B was verified.
Originality/value
The results could provide a reference for the establishment of accelerated environmental spectrum in the laboratory and give instructions on the application of aluminum alloy in alternated dry and wet environment.