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The purpose of this paper is to show how the external issue of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) affects enterprises’ corporate social responsibility (CSR).

This study investigates the relationship between EPU and CSR based on the Chinese capital market from 2010 to 2018. Following the most recent studies focused on economic policy uncertainty, this paper uses the news-based method proposed by Baker et al. (2016) to measure EPU and explore the effect of EPU on CSR, as well as the mediating role of state ownership in such a relationship.

Empirical results show that increasing EPU will restrain enterprises’ social responsibility behaviour and the inhibitory effect is more obvious for state-owned enterprises. Further analyses reveal that the inhibitory effect of EPU on CSR is stronger for enterprises that face severe financial constraints and is significant for various components of CSR, and trade policy uncertainty could also curb enterprises’ social responsibility behaviour.

As a stable economic environment is important for enterprises’ CSR engagement, the present study’s conclusions can help policymakers better understand the implications of policy stability for enterprises’ financial and non-financial decisions and especially their CSR decisions.

With the increasing attention paid to the CSR of enterprises, this study provides evidence that enterprises should develop appropriate CSR strategies according to the economic policy environment and enhance their capacity to withstand the risks generated by EPU.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to analyse the relationship between EPU and CSR. The results contribute to a better understanding of what issues influence enterprises’ CSR engagement, highlighting the importance of a stable economic policy environment and of enterprises’ ability to withstand risks.

The purpose of this study is to determine how to achieve a balance between freedom and control in public space. It analyses the relationship between freedom and control to identify phenomena and offer users and policymakers instructions for achieving that balance. Public space, including privately owned public space, is important to urban living. People have both the right to use public space and the responsibility to protect it. Both freedom and control should exist in public space in an appropriate combination. It is impossible and inappropriate for us to ask for absolute freedom or endure unreasonable control.

A case study of Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway (MTR) reveals typical freedom/control relationships. Quantitative descriptions are given based on field observations.

Freedom and control are primary factors affecting the quality of urban life and management of city space. They depend on and conflict with each other. The balance between freedom and control is a balance between diverse spaces. The “freedom space” belonging to both citizens and authorities determines whether freedom and control are balanced. Ethics and strategies constitute control. Only when each authority and user obtains a proper freedom space can freedom and control achieve balance in public space.

Freedom and control differ across cities because they are both affected by culture, history and tradition. As each city has its own characteristics, the freedom and control in each open space are distinctive. Balancing freedom and control requires an understanding of a city’s background and the era. While this paper does not attempt to achieve this understanding, further studies could devote more attention to dimensions of time and location.

The findings provide recommendations for users, policymakers and construction and management companies that will allow the management of harmonious and high-quality open spaces.

Freedom and control are two main factors affecting quality of life. The balance between freedom and control may bring a harmony and stable society environment. It would benefit both the authority and the people a lot.

This study provides a systematic analysis of freedom and control in public space and makes a valuable contribution to quality urban space policy, design and management.

This paper aims to investigate the influence of various laser texture parameters (diameter of pit, depth of pit and area density) on the tribological and tribo-vibration characteristics of tapered roller bearings (TRBs) under full oil lubricate conditions.

The laser surface texture parameters include: the diameter of pit (D: 60 µm, 100 µm, 200 µm), the depth of pit (H: 5 µm, 10 µm, 20 µm) and the area density (S: 6%, 12%, 24%). The outer raceway used laser marking device to prepare many regular pits. The tribological and tribo-vibration characteristics of pitting laser textured TRBs under full oil lubrication were studied by using the MMX-1A universal wear tester machine and vibration testing equipment. Through experiment and analysis, the effects of raceway pitting textures on tribological and tribo-vibration noise performance of TRBs were summarized.

When pit-textured TRBs operate under full oil, compared with the non-textured bearings, the average coefficient of friction and wear amount are significantly reduced. When D = 100 µm, H = 10 µm, S = 12%, average coefficient of friction = 0.00195 and wear amount = 0.12 mg, they are all at their minimum values. Compared to the same condition of non-textured groups, the coefficient of friction decreases by 66.6%, and the wear amount decreases by 79.3%. The energy from time-frequency and power spectrum analyses is mainly concentrated at high frequencies, with the signal power of pitting textured groups being lower than non-textured when the Y-direction is around 3600 Hz.

The experimental work can provide a reference for the investigation on the pitting textured TRBs.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-09-2024-0357/

The purpose of this research is to investigate the time structure characteristics of collaborative knowledge production behaviors in Q&A (question-and-answer) communities for explicit and tacit knowledge, and systematically investigate the supply side and the demand side of knowledge production.

Taking Zhihu as the research object, using the methods of recurrence plot and recurrence quantification analysis, this paper analyzes the recursive characteristics of the motion trajectories of the three behavioral sequences of questioning, answering, and discussion, qualitatively and quantitatively analyzing the generation and evolution mechanism of explicit and tacit knowledge.

The results show that compared with the demand-side behavior sequence, the supply-side behavior sequence exhibits higher stability, complexity and periodicity. Compared with the tacit knowledge topics, the demand-side behavior sequence of the explicit knowledge topics shows stronger nonlinearity, and the supply-side behavior sequence shows lower complexity.

The research conclusions provide preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of the recurrence plot method in distinguishing different types of knowledge production behaviors and have important application value for the “crowdsourcing” knowledge generation and identification under the knowledge economy and the sustainable development of the socialized question-and-answer community.

This study aims to replace petroleum-based lubricating oils with sustainable biomaterials, addressing issues associated with existing alternatives, such as poor performance, high cost and limited availability.

The transformation of agricultural waste cardanol, a nonedible vegetable oil that is abundantly available, into green cardanyl acetate (CA) biolubricating ester oil. The potential of CA as a base stock for lubricants is validated by assessing its lubrication performance.

CA exhibited a higher viscosity index, flash point and thermal stability than commercially available mineral-based (CTL3, coal-to-liquid) and synthetic (PAO2, poly-alpha-olefin) lubricant base stocks. Moreover, CA exhibits excellent anticorrosivity properties as well as PAO2 and CTL3. The tribological properties of CA were evaluated, and the results show that CA exhibits a smaller average wear scar diameter (WSD) of 0.54 mm than that of PAO2 (0.85 mm) and CTL3 (0.90 mm). In extreme pressure tests, acylated CA demonstrated the highest last nonseizure load capacity at 510 N, outperforming commercial CTL3 (491 N) and PAO2 (412 N). All results demonstrate that CA displays an excellent series of base stock properties.

The novelty of this work lies in the utilization of renewable agricultural waste, cashew nut shell liquid, to produce a high-value biolubricant as an alternative to commercial fossil-based lubricants. The renewable nature, low cost, and large-scale availability of raw materials pave a new path for the production and application of biolubricants, showcasing the immense potential of converting agricultural waste into high-value products.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-03-2024-0064/