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The purpose of this paper is to present an integrative approach for the problem of service capacity design for the ground crew at the airport check-in counters.

Using data collected from the airport check-in counters, several characteristics of the service demand were studied. First, many service time-dependent operating characteristics are addressed over a specified time window to evaluate the problems from the current ground crew allocation. Second, a linear programming model is developed to determine the optimal number of check-in counters to open over the specified time window based on the case study. In addition, sensitive analysis is conducted to further explore the dependency effect of the factors as well as improve the model. Third, the shift adjustment of the ground crew allocation is provided so as to satisfy the given service demand.

Numerical results indicated the effectiveness in the improvement of the human resource utilization of the proposed approach. The superiority of performance is illustrated in terms of less counters to be opened and decreased daily working hours.

The study is novel by applying the integrated approach so as to design a proper service capacity and thus the service supply and demand can be balanced.

This study aims to introduce a new cognitive style, dialectical thinking, to demonstrate how it can influence a leader’s impact on team conflict and employee performance. Specifically, this study intends to answer the research questions “whether and how leader’s dialectical thinking would influence employee performance” with conflict management perspective in the Chinese context.

Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to test the theoretical model with 222 employees in 43 teams from Chinese high-tech manufacturing firms.

The authors found that the leader’s dialectical thinking had positive relationships with employee creativity and in-role performance and that the relationships were mediated by the leader’s conflict management approach and team conflict in sequence.

Selecting, recruiting or promoting of leaders with a dialectical thinking style or providing training to enhance leaders’ dialectical thinking is important for facilitating team conflict management and employee performance.

This is the first empirical paper to introduce dialectical thinking into the leadership, conflict and employee performance literatures.

This paper aimed to prepare a kind of ZnS nanoparticles/poly(phenylene vinylene) (PPV) nanofibre and investigate its properties. Because the ZnS nanoparticles are important optoelectronic materials, their incorporation into one-dimensional (1D) nanoscale polymer matrices should be a meaningful subject for electrospinning.

ZnS/PPV composite nanofibres with an average diameter of 600 nm were successfully prepared by a combination of the in situ method and electrospinning technique. The nanofibres were electrospun from Zn(CH3COO)2·2H2O and PPV precursor composite solution, and the ZnS/PPV fibres were obtained by exposure of the electrospun fibres to H₂S gas to prepare ZnS nanoparticles in situ. Such fibres were characterised using X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared, transmission electron microscope (TEM), scanning electron microscope and photoluminescence (PL). The photoelectric properties of the fibres obtained were also investigated.

XRD patterns proved that ZnS nanocrystals generated in the composite nanofibres. The TEM image showed that the nanocrystals were homogeneously dispersed in the nanofibres. The PL spectrum of ZnS/PPV composite nanofibres exhibited a blue shift relative to the PPV nanofibres. I-V curve of the single nanofibre device under 5.76 mW/cm2 light illumination showed that the composite nanofibres have good photoelectric properties.

The comparisons of advantages between ZnS/PPV nanofibres with similar nanofibres will be further expanded in a later research.

Results demonstrate the promise of these novel nanostructures as ultraminiature photodetectors with the potential for integration into future hybrid nanophotonic devices and systems.

The integration of inorganic semiconductor nanoparticles into organic conjugated polymers leads to composite materials with unique physical properties and important application potential. In this work, ZnS nanoparticles were introduced into PPV by an in situ method, so as to obtain a kind of novel 1D nanomaterials with good photoelectric properties.

Previous studies have produced inconsistent findings regarding the effects of resource constraints on corporate illegal behavior. This study aims to explore how entrepreneurial firms can overcome the difficulties generated by resource constraints.

Drawing on insights from general strain theory and focusing on listed entrepreneurial firms, this study proposes that failure to obtain enough resources through listing generates strain in the managers of listed entrepreneurial firms, driving them to resort to corporate financial fraud as a solution. Nevertheless, such relationships between resource constraints and the likelihood of corporate financial fraud can be weakened by innovation capability, because innovation capability can generate more confidence in their managers and relieve their strains, thereby dissuading them from engaging in corporate financial fraud.

According to our empirical results, both financial and human resource constraints are positively related to the likelihood of corporate financial fraud in listed entrepreneurial firms, but such effects can be mitigated by innovation capability.

This study provides practical implications for both regulators and managers by indicating that although entrepreneurial firms with resource constraints are more likely to commit financial fraud, innovation capability could be a strategic approach to enhance managers’ confidence and relieve the strain.

Our study contributes to the literature by enriching our understanding of the consequences of resource constraints in entrepreneurial firms and highlighting the strategic importance of innovation capability in mitigating such effects.

The formation of alliances between organisations is increasingly common, allowing firms to discover and ensure competitive advantages. This research paper aims to make a critical analysis of studies to understand the role of communication between partners in the process of strategic alliances.

A systematic literature review was carried out, using the Web of Science database to obtain data, associating the terms “communication” and “strategic alliances”, which resulted in 240 scientific articles (published between 1993 and March 2021). After data treatment using VOSviewer software and reading of the contents, the final sample consisted of 179 articles on the subject in question.

The conceptual limits, exploratory descriptive analysis of the data and content analysis of research methods are presented, with five clusters being identified. The results show growing academic interest in studying communication associated with strategic alliances, and authors’ main interest lies in understanding the critical success factors and the relation between communication and knowledge.

This study corroborates understanding of the future of alliances, assuming that learning is the main objective; trust is the factor determining success or failure; technology is the aggregating tool; culture affects the relation; and communication is not an end but a means to construct consolidated, long-lasting and high-performing strategic alliances.

This study is innovative in strategic alliances area. The research confirms that the main factor in forming alliances, in both emerging and international markets, is the learning intention. This fact reinforces the relevance of the learning made possible by this transfer of know-how through communication. In addition, this study gives critical understanding of how the process of communication between partners in an alliance must be distinct; i.e. it must be flexible enough to adjust to the stage in the alliance’s life cycle.

This paper aims to deal with the coordination problem of the supply chain through cost sharing of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and government subsidy.

With respect to the coordination problem of the supply chain with CSR, this paper constructs a three-stage game model consisting of a dominant retailer, n suppliers and government. From the perspective of cost sharing and government subsidies, this paper discussed the decentralized and centralized decision-making, respectively. On this basis, this paper designed a coordination mechanism considering both cost sharing and government subsidies and explore the impact of cost sharing rate and government subsidy rate on CSR efforts, members’ profits and social welfare.

CSR can improve the profits of supply chain members and the overall performance of the supply chain. Then the profits of supply chain nodal enterprises will be affected by the fulfillment level of CSR of their partners. Furthermore, excessive CSR will erode the supply chain profits and cause resource waste. High CSR costs often make retailers low CSR effort level, while a high CSR cost sharing rate can reduce the profits of suppliers and the supply chain. In addition, excessive government subsidies will lead to the decline of social welfare. Excessive government subsidies will cause the dependence of enterprises and affect their operating efficiency.

The proposed coordination mechanism can effectively do with the coordination problem of the supply chain.

The proposed coordination mechanism considering cost sharing and government subsidies simultaneously can effectively deal with conflict problems and guarantee the supply chain members and the supply chain to maximize their profits and social welfare.

Effectuation, which articulates the process of entrepreneurial action based on nonpredictive control logic, is receiving extensive scholarly attention. What drives the effectual entrepreneurship is featured with high complexity. However, existing studies ignored the complex driving forces underlying entrepreneurial decision-making. Building on a configurational perspective, the purpose of this study was to examine the combinative effects of environmental uncertainty and entrepreneurs’ means on effectual entrepreneurship.

Drawing on 54 entrepreneurs who are launching new ventures in China, this study adopts a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to investigate two sets of antecedent conditions and how they form different combinations for a highly effectual entrepreneurship.

Our findings disclose four highly effectual entrepreneurship paths involving novice–specialist effectual entrepreneurship in a highly uncertain environment, socialite–specialist effectual entrepreneurship in a highly uncertain environment, pure-specialist effectual entrepreneurship and resourceful effectual entrepreneurship, and one path of barefoot noneffectual entrepreneurship in a highly uncertain environment, which reveals the complex nature of environmental uncertainty and entrepreneurs’ means in driving entrepreneurs to adopt effectuation.

Our study makes the following contributions. First, by taking a configurational perspective, we are able to obtain an elaborate view of the combined effects of environmental uncertainty and entrepreneurs’ means on effectual entrepreneurship. Second, we expand prior thinking on the relationship between environmental uncertainty and effectuation. Third, our study offers a more delicate understanding of entrepreneurs’ means in driving effectuation by splitting means into three separate factors.

This study aims to examine whether a firm's demand for high-quality auditors is influenced by multiple large shareholders (MLS). As one type of ownership structure, MLS have gained popularity in China recently and have different types of large shareholders, including large institutional shareholder, large foreign shareholder and large state shareholder. The authors also examine whether different types of MLS have heterogeneous impacts on appointing high-quality auditors.

With a sample of 27,131 firm-year observations from Chinese public companies from 2003 to 2018, the authors use multivariate regressions to examine the effect of MLS on auditor choice. Heckman two-stage analysis, a firm fixed effects model, propensity score matching and difference-in-differences test are used as robustness checks.

This paper finds that the presence and power of MLS increase the likelihood of appointing high-quality auditors. With regard to the types of MLS, large institutional shareholders and foreign shareholders have significant positive effects on appointing high-quality auditors, while the presence of state-owned large shareholders has no effect on auditor choice. Further analyses reveal that the positive effect of MLS on high-quality auditor choice is more pronounced in firms with severe agency problems and information asymmetry. Taken together, these results suggest that MLS play a monitoring role by demanding high-quality auditors.

This paper contributes to the literature on the determinants of auditor choice. While prior studies primarily focus on the impact of concentrated ownership structure, corporate governance and the pressure from stakeholders on auditor choice, this paper complements the literature by providing evidence from the heterogeneous effects of different types MLS. This paper also extends the literature on the consequences of MLS from the perspective of auditor choice.

This study aims to determine the key indicators affecting the resilience of the construction supply chain to flooding and calculate the resilience of the urban construction supply chain in three cases city.

This study combines expert opinions and literature review to determine key indicators and establish a fuzzy EWM-GRA-TOPSIS evaluation model. The index weight was calculated using the entropy weight method, and GRA-TOPSIS was used for comprehensive evaluation.

The results of the study show that the three cities are ranked from the high to low in order of Hangzhou, Hefei and Zhengzhou.

The innovative method adopted in this study comprising EWM-GRA-TOPSIS reduced the influence of subjectivity, fully extracted and utilized data, in a way that respects objective reality. Further, this approach enabled the absolute and relative level of urban construction supply chain resilience to be identified, allowing improvements in the comprehensiveness of decision-making. The method is relatively simple, reasonable, understandable, and computationally efficient. Within the approach, the entropy weight method was used to assign different index weights, and the GRA-TOPSIS was used to rank the resilience of the construction supply chain in three urban cities. The development of resilience provides a robust decision-making basis and theoretical reference, further enriching research methods, and having strong practical value. The study serves to improve risk awareness and resilience, which in turn helps to reduce losses. It also provides enhanced awareness regarding the future enhancement of supply chain resilience for urban construction.

This paper attempts to analyze the relationship between the complementarity degrees of imperfect complementary products and sales strategies and give appropriate sales strategies for a two-stage supply chain.

With respect to two-stage supply chain consisting of two manufacturers who produce imperfect complementary products and one retailer who sells the products, aiming at bundling sales strategy, the authors define complementarity elasticity of products and use it to measure the degree of complementary between two products. Based on Stackelberg game and cooperation, the authors analyze the relationship between the complementarity degrees of imperfect complementary products and appropriate sales strategies.

As the impact of complementarity degree on sales strategy decision-making is better, the authors can pinpoint out which sales decision-making is optimal and which bundling sales strategy is the best for a two-stage supply chain. Considering that the degree of complementarity has a significant impact on the product sales strategy, the authors can point out which sales decision-making is optimal, that is, which bundled sales strategy is the optimal in the secondary supply chain of selling complementary products.

An innovative bundling can expand the sales of existing products and new products. It helps a retailer transcend and defeat competitors by reducing marketing expenses while increasing profits. Proper use of bundling can improve consumers utility and create an overall positive effect for both the enterprises and consumer.

The research can help some retailers to make many appropriate bundling sales strategies.