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The purpose of this paper is to study the rent-seeking behavior of stakeholders in construction projects and to provide a reference for further studies on collaboration in China, which could thus improve the collaborative management in construction and reduce the waste of resources.

In this paper, the authors discuss and analyze the current situation of rent-seeking behavior in infrastructure construction projects, integrated project delivery (IPD), and the application of a building information model (BIM) in China. The authors analyze the collusive behavior between the supervision department and the contractor via the rent-seeking model on the basis of the game theory and present that BIM and IPD have a positive impact on rent-seeking activities of construction projects. The key factors influencing the rent-seeking activities from the perspective of the owner are studied via a questionnaire survey.

The research status of IPD in China includes the application of IPD, IPD collaborative management and the combination of lean construction (LC), IPD and BIM. The enthusiasm of the adoption of BIM and IPD is higher for design institute, construction units, research institutions and universities. The findings indicate that the owner appears to have a significant influence on stakeholders in construction projects, such as supervising efficiency, rewards and punishment. Therefore, the results also demonstrate that the construction project based on BIM and IPD can effectively avoid the rent-seeking activities of the participants.

The findings are primarily based on questionnaire data originated from Central China; hence there are some limitations that are worth noting.

First, it provides compelling data evidence for the adoption of BIM and IPD in China. Second, it paves a solid foundation for the behavior of stakeholders in construction projects based on BIM and IPD.

In this paper, a game model of contractor, supervisor and owner is established, and a preliminary attempt is made to introduce BIM and IPD into the model for the behavioral research of participants.

Construction industrialization is emerging in the construction industry, as a result, buildings with prefabricated assemblies are gaining more and more ground. In most situations, the prefabricated building assemblies are installed by labor crews manually. If some assemblies are ill-designed, clashes between labor crews’ workspaces and them may occur, which will have bad effect on workers’ productivity and even incur hazard. The purpose of this paper is to provide a 4D building information modeling (BIM) based approach to find potential workspace conflicts during the installation process of prefabricated building assemblies in the detailed design process so as to eliminate them in advance.

First, a workspace modeling method is provided; second, three kinds of workspace conflicts are analyzed; third, a 4D-BIM-based approach is established; fourth, a prototype tool based on the approach is developed; and finally, a case study is conducted to test the tool.

The result shows that the proposed tool can detect or precaution workspace conflicts and visualize them in a series of views; in doing so, valuable information can be obtained for improving the design quality of prefabricated assemblies.

The proposed approach and tool only concern the congestions caused by ill-designed prefabricated components; the tool needed to be further optimized for speed; the tests on the tool are limited to a single case study; and more tests are needed to verify its effectiveness.

This research provides a 4D-BIM-based approach and a prototype tool for installation workspace analysis. It can be used to provide support for design optimization of prefabricated building assemblies.

Social presence (SP), which refers to individuals’ perception of others being engaged as “real people” in the same situation, is a crucial component in technology-rich learning environments (TREs). This study aims to identify major learning design, antecedents and outcomes of SP within TREs, and identify common findings from the past two decades.

Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses review principles and a qualitative analysis of selected articles, a final review of 72 studies that met inclusion criteria was obtained. Key information, including education level, discipline, sample size, study type and measurements, was extracted and studies were further analyzed and synthesized based on design features and learning modes.

The study identifies five crucial factors for instructional design to foster SP in TREs: technology affordances, multimedia features, social factors, instructional principles, learner characteristics and learning management systems. The authors compare two learning modes across three dimensions and identify popular technologies used in studies related to SP over the past two decades. Practical recommendations are provided for educators and educational technology developers to enhance SP within technology-rich learning environments.

This research contributes to the discourse on online learning and computer-supported communication, particularly in the post-COVID-19 era. By examining factors influencing SP and providing implications for instruction and educational technology development, this study offers evidence-based support to educators for engaging learners and fostering authentic learning experiences through adaptive selection of educational technologies.

This paper intends to provide a thematic literature review of the scholarly research articles orbiting the Sino–African education cooperation and exchange, published between 2005 and 2022.

The methodology used in this paper is qualitative in nature with a thematic approach. The author used content analysis techniques to spotlight the major themes of the topic studied. The author selected the papers and theses, based on their heuristic capacity, from two major databases for the English and Chinese literature: Web of Science and CNKI. The selection process resulted in 60 high-quality peer-reviewed articles and theses. Another 30 research articles and theses were used as supplementary resources.

The literature concentrates on six points: the historical development, the nature of the exchange, the frameworks of the cooperation, vocational training and knowledge transfer, African students in China and their experiences, and education cooperation and soft power. However, research tends to be somewhat polemical rather than an academic debate between Chinese researchers and their western peers. Therefore, empirical studies beyond the geopolitical preoccupations and the “YEA” or “NAY” to the Sino–African education exchange are critically needed.

The implications of this study go beyond the east/west or developed/developing world rhetoric and focus more on sustainable educational development on a global scale. Understanding how the literature on the Sino–African education engagement is shaping, provides valuable insights into international education in the global south. It can also be implied to approach educational engagement with other destinations such as India, Türkiye and Brazil.

This thematic literature review concentrates on the educational aspect of Sino–African relations. It compares English and Chinese peer-reviewed scholarly articles and theses on China–Africa educational engagement and has heuristic implications for sustainable educational development globally.

The development of China's solar photovoltaic (PV) industry is in a transition period from pursuing scale and speed to focusing on efficiency and quality. “Smart PV projects” (SPVPs) were proposed by the ministries of the Chinese government in 2018 to encourage intelligent upgrading and to fill the gaps in traditional PV projects. However, only a small number of PV enterprises are in progress, and only a few SPVPs have been built. The intelligence level of China's PV projects needs to be improved. The purpose of this study is to analyze the willingness of the main participants to be involved in the intelligent upgrading of PV projects by establishing an evolutionary game model that includes three parties.

A tripartite evolutionary game model is constructed that considers PV enterprises, project owners and the government. The evolutionary stability strategies of each party and the corresponding stable conditions are obtained. The parameters that affect the decision behaviors are also analyzed.

The four stages of the intelligent upgrade of PV projects and the effects of the government subsidy strategies are examined. At different stages, adopting different measures to promote cooperation among the three parties involved is necessary. Government subsidies should be provided to PV enterprises during the initial stage and should be biased toward project owners during the intermediate stage. During the peak stage, PV enterprises constantly need to decrease project costs and improve quality and service, thus helping project owners reduce their initial investments and obtain additional gains. The government's reputation drives it to continually adopt incentive strategies.

This research focuses on the interactions among the three parties. Based on evolutionary game analysis, several conditions that facilitate the intelligent upgrading of PV projects are illustrated. Implications for different developing stages are proposed from the perspectives of each party for the decision-makers of SPVPs.

Academic scholars have tested students’ entrepreneurial intention (SEI) through the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). Still, the link between entrepreneurial intention and career is missing in previous studies. An extensive literature review developed the rationale that existing theories in the entrepreneurial discipline have limitations in linking entrepreneurial intention with career. This research is conducted to develop a comprehensive model for the relationship between entrepreneurial university support, student entrepreneurial intention, behavior and career. Stimulus-Organism-Behavior-Consequence (SOBC) paradigm from organizational behavior research is borrowed to entrepreneurship literature.

The cross-sectional data was collected from Pakistani university students enrolled in business incubators. A sample of 100 responses was tested with a partial least square–structural equation modelling approach.

The study established that by the underpinning of SOBC, entrepreneurial university support influences students’ entrepreneurial intention. It is also found that the students’ entrepreneurial intention strongly influences their entrepreneurial behavior, leading them to entrepreneurship careers.

The policies influencing students’ entrepreneurial intention and behavior can be developed using the SOBC paradigm. Higher education institutions can improve students’ entrepreneurial intentions and behavior to lead them to entrepreneurship careers.

This research introduced the SOBC paradigm in entrepreneurial intention and behavior literature. SOBC underpinning explored a new dimension of entrepreneurial intention and behavior literature.

Hospitality is one of the industries severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is vital to comprehend how to help the workforce in this service sector grow resilient through such a crisis. This paper aims to unpack the role of employer event communication in promoting hotel workers’ resilience.

The data were garnered from 462 hotel workers who were on unpaid leave or layoff during the hotel shutdown.

The results unfolded the positive link between employer event communication and hotel workers’ resilience, for which core beliefs examination served as a mediation mechanism. Family support was found to moderate the effect of employer event communication on core beliefs examination.

The findings indicate to hospitality organizations that in face of a crisis such as the COVID-19, their employee resilience can be activated if they implement event communication activities. They should further realize that their support should go hand in hand with family support in fueling employee resilience from the crisis.

This study advances the understanding of how and when to promote resilience among hotel workers during a pandemic crisis.