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The authors are committed to providing the Chinese government with a foundation for making decisions that will protect black land and ensure long-term agricultural development.

Using the grounded theory approach, this study investigates the influencing factors affecting the quality of black land in Northeast China and proposes a hypothetical model for the mechanism of the influencing factors on the quality of black land in Northeast China.

The factors influencing the quality of black land include not only soil quality, ecological quality and environmental quality, but also economic quality and management quality, and can be classified into five categories. There are complex influence relationships between various factors and black land quality, with soil quality, ecological quality, environmental quality and management quality having a positive influence on economic quality. Soil quality, ecological quality and environmental quality are all improved as a result of good management. Black land quality is influenced positively by environmental quality, economic quality and management quality.

The quality of black land is a major concern in terms of food production and long-term agricultural development. The black land in Northeast China was chosen as the subject of this study, and the research findings have some limitations. The next step will be to expand from studying the black land in Northeast China to the black land worldwide.

In Northeast China, the quality of the five dimensions of black land must be improved in a coordinated and consistent manner.

The purpose of this paper is to establish a synthetic evaluation index system of new socialist countryside (NSC) development at county level in China, and by which to evaluate the level of NSC construction among different regions in China. Then, some problems of rural development can be found and corresponding measures can be proposed, which could provide references for policymaking.

First, from agricultural, rural and farmers' perspective, a preliminary index system which containing 44 indicators was put forward. Then, combining with a series of subjective and objective indicator screening methods, such as fuzzy synthetic evaluation, clustering analysis, correlation and variation coefficient analysis, the final index system containing 22 indicators was established. Third, combining with factor analysis, the final index system was used to evaluate the level of NSC construction in 28 counties of China in 2007. Finally, we calculated district factor scores by a model and gave an aggregate index ranking of different regions.

NSC construction at county level is not well developed in China and there are significant geographical differences among different districts. First, NSC construction in Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Hangzhou is relatively better. Second, NSC construction of East China is better than that of North China and Central China. Northeast of China is better than Southwest and Northwest. Third, NSC construction in municipalities is higher than non‐municipalities. Rural development in Western regions of China needs to be paid special attention.

A final evaluation index system including 22 indicators was designed. These indicators are complete, independent, weakly correlative and stable. The index system can be further applied to evaluate other regions' NSC development. The evaluation results can provide useful references for NSC reform in the whole nation.

Multiutility tunnel (MUT) has been recognised as a more sustainable method to place underground utilities than the traditional directly buried (DB) method. However, the implementation of MUT is hindered because of high initial construction costs and the difficulty to demonstrate its benefits, especially social benefits that are hard to be quantified. To address the limitation, this paper aims to quantify and compare both economic costs and traveller loss (i.e. an important part of social costs) of the MUT and DB method.

An agent-based model (ABM) is developed, which considers attributes and actions of vehicles, interactions between vehicles and interactions between vehicles and the road network. The ABM is used to estimate traveller loss by comparing traveller time when the MUT and DB method is adopted, respectively. The traveller loss is combined with economic costs to estimate and compare the LCC of the MUT and DB method. To verify the ABM-based approach, it is implemented in an MUT project in Shanghai, China.

Results of the study indicate: (1) When the DB method is adopted, periodic E&Rs cause severe traffic congestion and substantial traveller loss. (2) When traveller loss is not included in the LCC estimation, the DB method has a lower LCC in most scenarios. (3) When traveller loss is included, the relative LCC of MUT and the time it takes to cover the LCC of the MUT and DB method is largely reduced. Thus, when social costs are considered, MUT will bring more benefits than the DB method.

Previous studies on comparing the MUT and DB method focus on investigating economic costs, while other costs, e.g. social costs, are not well addressed quantitatively. Besides, current studies of traveller loss estimation lack consideration of factors such as unique attributes, actions and interactions of vehicles and the network. Hence, this paper applies an ABM-based approach to involve these factors and produce more reliable estimation of traveller loss than existing approaches. Moreover, by integrating traveller loss into LCC analysis, this paper helps to understand the benefits of MUT thus assisting decision-making in selecting utilities placement methods.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of open innovation (OI) in Chinese enterprises on enterprise value (EV). At the same time, this research explores the effects of OI in environmental, social and governance (ESG) and also reveals the intermediary role of ESG in the impact of OI on improving EV.

This study builds a theoretical framework to define a set of hypotheses verified in empirical research. Based on the panel data of Chinese listed companies removing missing data from 2011 to 2020, a two-way fixed effect model is used to study the relationship between OI, ESG and EV.

The research shows that OI of enterprises has effectively improved their value. At the same time, OI can also improve the ESG of enterprises. That OI increases EV is partly by the mediating path of ESG.

This study determines the influence of OI on EV from a stakeholder and sustainable development perspective, clarifying the mediating pathway of ESG in the relationship. Doing so could inspire companies to improve their OI and desire to enhance competitiveness. It will also prompt enterprises to pay attention to social responsibility activities.

Although social media is widely used for organizational communication, studies have begun to show its controversial effects on job performance in the workplace. To investigate these effects, this study developed a conceptual framework for how social media interactivity affects communication quality and work interruption, as well as how such effects impact job performance.

The proposed theoretical model was empirically validated through a survey study of 556 employees in China.

The results verified a social media interactivity paradox that indicated social media interactivity increased both communication quality and work interruptions. The results further showed that high levels of social media dependency were a detriment to organizations.

This study verified the existence of a social media interactivity paradox in the use of social media for workplace communication. Moreover, results revealed that the effect of social media interactivity on organizational outcomes depends on its respective dimensions.

Promoting low-carbon in the construction industry is important for achieving the overall low-carbon goals. Public–private partnership is very popular in public infrastructure projects. However, different perceptions of low-carbon and behaviors of public and private sectors can hinder the realization of low-carbon in these projects. In order to analyze the willingness of each stakeholder to cooperate towards low-carbon goals, an evolutionary game model is constructed.

An evolutionary game model that considers the opportunistic behavior of the participants is developed. The evolutionary stable strategies (ESSs) under different scenarios are examined, and the factors that influence the willingness to cooperate between the government and private investors are investigated.

The results illustrate that a well-designed system of profit distribution and subsidies can enhance collaboration. Excessive subsidies have negative impact on cooperation between the two sides, because these two sides can weaken income distribution and lead to the free-riding behavior of the government. Under the situation of two ESSs, there is also an optimal revenue distribution coefficient that maximizes the probability of cooperation. With the introduction of supervision and punishment mechanism, the opportunistic behavior of private investors is effectively constrained.

An evolutionary game model is developed to explore the cooperation between the public sector and the private sector in the field of low-carbon construction. Based on the analysis of the model, this paper summarizes the conditions and strategies that can enable the two sectors to cooperate.

This study aims to explore the effect of chief executive officer education on firms’ action timing and acquisition performance in industry merger waves. In addition, this study investigated the moderating influence of CEO duality and firm cash flow on the relationship between education and entry timing.

Following the methodology for determining merger waves in previous studies, the authors identified 16 industry merger waves of Chinese listed firms from 2008 to 2019. Multiple linear regression was employed to examine the hypotheses.

The results showed that higher CEO education was associated with early participation in merger waves. CEO duality negatively moderated the education-entry timing relation. The effect of CEO education on entry timing was more pronounced when firms had higher cash flow. Moreover, more educated CEOs materially enhanced acquisition performance in merger waves.

Entry timing in industry merger waves has important implications, as early movers establish competitive advantages and achieve higher acquisition performance. However, the managerial characteristics determining entry timing have not received adequate attention. Meanwhile, studies examining the effect of CEO education on acquisitions are limited. This study explored the effect of CEO education on firms’ entry timing and acquisition performance in merger waves, thereby contributing to the literature on merger waves and managerial characteristics. This study’s findings regarding the moderators of the education-entry timing relation enrich the literature on corporate governance and agency theory.

The purpose of this research is to investigate a new approach with its supporting building information modelling (BIM) + augmented reality (AR) tool to enhance architectural visualisation in building life cycle. Traditional approaches to visualise architectural design concentrate on static pictures or three-dimensional (3D) scale models which cause problems, such as expensive design evolution, lack of stakeholders’ communication and limited reusability. The 3D animated fly-throughs still occur on a computer screen in two-dimensions and seem cold and mechanical, unless done with advanced production software.

The method of this research included case study and interview. It was, first, stated, from the building process perspective, how the BIM + AR for Architectural Visualisation System (BAAVS) was realised by integrating two types of visualisation techniques: BIM and AR, and four stages of building life cycle. Then the paper demonstrated four case studies to validate the BAAVS. Finally, four interviews were made with each case manager and team members to collect feedback on utilising BAAVS technology. Questions were asked in the areas of benefits, drawbacks and technical limitations with respect to BAAVS.

Feedback from the stakeholders involved in the four cases indicated that BAAVS was useful and efficient to visualise architectural design and communicate with each other.

This paper demonstrates BAAVS that integrated BIM and AR into architectural visualisation. The system supports an innovative performance that allows: designers to put virtual building scheme in physical environment; owners to gain an immersive and interactive experience; and property sellers to communicate with customers efficiently.

The purpose of this paper is to present a solution space searching method to study the initial design of interplanetary low thrust gravity assist trajectory.

For reducing the complexity and nonlinearity of the initial design problem, a sixth degree inverse polynomial shape based approach is brought. Then some improvements are provided for solving the parameters in the shape function and a quasi‐lambert solver is brought through the shape based method, the thrust profile can be generated under the given time of flight, boundary states including positions and velocities for low thrust phase. Combining gravity assist model, the problem is summarized and an improved pruning technique is used for searching the feasible solution space for low thrust gravity assist trajectory.

Using the solution space searching method, the feasible solution region would be generated under the given mission condition. The treatment about gravity assist demonstrates more accurate than previous method. Also another advantage is that the searching method can be used to design different types of mission trajectory, including flyby and rendezvous trajectories.

The method can be used as an efficient approach to search the feasible region for the complex low thrust gravity assist trajectory, and it can provide appropriate initial guesses for the low thrust gravity assist trajectory in mission design phase.

Feasible solution space would be obtained through the searching method. The quasi‐Lambert solver in the paper is found under the shape‐based method and relative improvement, and it shows its availability during the searching process. Through mission trajectory design, the effectiveness of the method is shown.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the current applications of BIM, the integration of related technologies and the tendencies and challenges systematically.

Using quantitative and qualitative bibliometric statistical methods, the current mode of interaction between BIM and other related technologies is summarized.

This paper identified 24 different BIM applications in the life cycle. From two perspectives, the implementation status of BIM applications and integrated technologies are respectively studied. The future industry development framework is drawn comprehensively. We summarized the challenges of BIM applications from the perspectives of management, technology and promotion, and confirmed that most of the challenges come from the two driving factors of promotion and management.

The technical challenges reviewed in this paper are from the collected literature we have extracted, which is only a part of the practical challenges and not comprehensive enough.

We summarized the current mode of interactive use of BIM and sorted out the challenges faced by BIM applications to provide reference for the risks and challenges faced by the future industry.

There is little literature to integrate BIM applications and to establish BIM related challenges and risk frameworks. In this paper, we provide a review of the current implementation level of BIM and the risks and challenges of stakeholders through three aspects of management, technology and promotion.