Xiaoyan Jin, Sultan Sikandar Mirza, Chengming Huang and Chengwei Zhang
In this fast-changing world, digitization has become crucial to organizations, allowing decision-makers to alter corporate processes. Companies with a higher corporate social…
Abstract
Purpose
In this fast-changing world, digitization has become crucial to organizations, allowing decision-makers to alter corporate processes. Companies with a higher corporate social responsibility (CSR) level not only help encourage employees to focus on their goals, but they also show that they take their social responsibility seriously, which is increasingly important in today’s digital economy. So, this study aims to examine the relationship between digital transformation and CSR disclosure of Chinese A-share companies. Furthermore, this research investigates the moderating impact of governance heterogeneity, including CEO power and corporate internal control (INT) mechanisms.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used fixed effect estimation with robust standard errors to examine the relationship between digital transformation and CSR disclosure and the moderating effect of governance heterogeneity among Chinese A-share companies from 2010 to 2020. The whole sample consists of 17,266 firms, including 5,038 state-owned enterprise (SOE) company records and 12,228 non-SOE records. The whole sample data is collected from the China Stock Market and Accounting Research, the Chinese Research Data Services and the WIND databases.
Findings
The regression results lead us to three conclusions after classifying the sample into non-SOE and SOE groups. First, Chinese A-share businesses with greater levels of digitalization have lower CSR disclosures. Both SOE and non-SOE are consistent with these findings. Second, increasing CEO authority creates a more centralized company decision-making structure (Breuer et al., 2022; Freire, 2019), which improves the negative association between digitalization and CSR disclosure. These conclusions, however, also apply to non-SOE. Finally, INT reinforces the association between corporate digitization and CSR disclosure, which is especially obvious in SOEs. These findings are robust to alternative HEXUN CSR disclosure index. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the negative relationship between corporate digitalization and CSR disclosures is more pronounced in bigger, highly levered and highly financialized firms.
Originality/value
Digitalization and CSR disclosure are well studied, but few have examined their interactions from a governance heterogeneity perspective in China. Practitioners and policymakers may use these insights to help business owners implement suitable digital policies for firm development from diverse business perspectives.
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XiaoYan Jin and Sultan Sikandar Mirza
Digitalization is increasingly important for promoting authentic CSR practices. Firms with higher CSR levels motivate their employees to pursue their goals and demonstrate their…
Abstract
Purpose
Digitalization is increasingly important for promoting authentic CSR practices. Firms with higher CSR levels motivate their employees to pursue their goals and demonstrate their social responsibility. However, the literature has not adequately examined how firm-level digitalization influences corporate sustainability from a governance perspective. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring how digitalization affects CSR disclosure, a key aspect of sustainability, at the firm level. Furthermore, this study also aims to investigate how governance factors, such as management power, internal control and minority shareholder pressure, moderate this effect.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employs a fixed effect model with robust standard errors to analyze how digitalization and CSR disclosure are related and how this relationship is moderated by governance heterogeneity among Chinese A-share companies from 2010 to 2020. The sample consists of 2,339 firms, of which 360 are SOEs and 1,979 are non-SOEs. To ensure robustness, this study has excluded the observations in 2020 to avoid the effects of COVID-19 and used an alternative measure of CSR disclosure based on the HEXUN CSR disclosure index. Furthermore, this study also explores the link in various corporate-level CSR settings.
Findings
The regression findings reveal that: First, Chinese A-share firms with higher digitalization levels disclose less CSR information. This finding holds for both SOEs and non-SOEs. Second, stronger management power has a negative moderating effect that weakens the link between digitalization and CSR disclosure, and this effect is mainly driven by SOEs. Third, internal control attenuates the negative association between firm digitalization and CSR disclosure, which is more pronounced in SOEs. Finally, minority shareholders exacerbate the negative relationship between digitalization and CSR disclosure, and this effect is more evident in non-SOEs. These results are robust to excluding the potential COVID effect and using an alternative HEXUN CSR disclosure index measure.
Originality/value
Digitalization and sustainability have been widely discussed at a macro level, but their relationship at a micro level has been largely overlooked. Moreover, there is hardly any evidence on how governance heterogeneity affects this relationship in emerging economies, especially China. This paper addresses these issues by providing empirical evidence on how digital transformation influences CSR disclosure in China, a context where digitalization and CSR are both rapidly evolving. The paper also offers implications for both practitioners and policymakers to design appropriate digital strategies for firm development from diverse business perspectives.
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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…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Practical implications
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.
Originality/value
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.
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Peng Yao, Xiaoyan Li, Fengyang Jin and Yang Li
This paper aims to analyze the morphology transformation on the Cu3Sn grains during the formation of full Cu3Sn solder joints in electronic packaging.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyze the morphology transformation on the Cu3Sn grains during the formation of full Cu3Sn solder joints in electronic packaging.
Design/methodology/approach
Because of the infeasibility of analyzing the morphology transformation intuitively, a novel equivalent method is used. The morphology transformation on the Cu3Sn grains, during the formation of full Cu3Sn solder joints, is regarded as equivalent to the morphology transformation on the Cu3Sn grains derived from the Cu/Sn structures with different Sn thickness.
Findings
During soldering, the Cu3Sn grains first grew in the fine equiaxial shape in a ripening process until the critical size. Under the critical size, the Cu3Sn grains were changed from the equiaxial shape to the columnar shape. Moreover, the columnar Cu3Sn grains could be divided into different clusters with different growth directions. With the proceeding of soldering, the columnar Cu3Sn grains continued to grow in a feather of the width growing at a greater extent than the length. With the growth of the columnar Cu3Sn grains, adjacent Cu3Sn grains, within each cluster, merged with each other. Next, the merged columnar Cu3Sn grains, within each cluster, continued to merge with each other. Finally, the columnar Cu3Sn grains, within each cluster, merged into one coarse columnar Cu3Sn grain with the formation of full Cu3Sn solder joints. The detailed mechanism, for the very interesting morphology transformation, has been proposed.
Originality/value
Few researchers focused on the morphology transformation of interfacial phases during the formation of full intermetallic compounds joints. To bridge the research gap, the morphology transformation on the Cu3Sn grains during the formation of full Cu3Sn solder joints has been studied for the first time.
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Hui He, Qinghua He, Yajiao Chen, Ge Wang and Xiaoyan Chen
Interorganizational knowledge sharing (IKS) is an important strategy for organizations to obtain exterior knowledge resources to enhance innovation and value co-creation in…
Abstract
Purpose
Interorganizational knowledge sharing (IKS) is an important strategy for organizations to obtain exterior knowledge resources to enhance innovation and value co-creation in megaprojects. However, little research has deeply investigated multiple attributes of organizational motivations and the combinatorial effects of these motivations on facilitating IKS. Based on resource dependency theory, this study examined the net and combinatorial effects of four types of motivations (i.e. image motivations, reactive motivations, project-based co-creative economic motivations and cross-project co-creative economic motivations).
Design/methodology/approach
Questionnaire surveys were administered to 244 practitioners with over 10 years of experience in construction megaprojects. The collected data were analyzed using a partial least square-structural equation model (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).
Findings
The findings of PLS-SEM support that image and project-based co-creative economic motivations positively drive IKS. The results of fsQCA reveal three types of efficacious configurations, including comprehensive benefits-integrated driven, short-term benefits-dominated driven and long-term benefits-dominated driven configurations.
Originality/value
This study provides insight into broadening the understanding of multidimensional organizational motivations for IKS and fostering the configurational perspective to their effects with the idea that one size does not fit all. Managers should develop effective interventions considering the combination of various motivations and use multi-layered incentive structures that reward both immediate project-specific outcomes and long-term relationship-building efforts.
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Chao Wang, Xiaoyan Jiang, Qing Li, Zijuan Hu and Jie Lin
Market evaluation of products is the basis for product innovation, yet traditional expert-based evaluation methods are highly dependent on the specialization of experts. There…
Abstract
Purpose
Market evaluation of products is the basis for product innovation, yet traditional expert-based evaluation methods are highly dependent on the specialization of experts. There exist a lot of weak expert-generated texts on the Internet of their own subjective evaluations of products. Analyzing these texts can indirectly extract the opinions of weak experts and transform them into decision-support information that assists product designers in understanding the market.
Design/methodology/approach
In social networks, a subset of users, termed “weak experts”, possess specialized knowledge and frequently share their product experiences online. This study introduces a comparative opinion mining framework that leverages the insights of “weak experts” to analyze user opinions.
Findings
An automotive product case study demonstrates that evaluations based on weak expert insights offer managerial insights with a 99.4% improvement in timeliness over traditional expert analyses. Furthermore, in the few-shot sentiment analysis module, with only 10% of the sample, the precision loss is just 1.59%. In addition, the quantitative module of specialization weighting balances low-specialization expert opinions and boosts the weight of high-specialization weak expert views. This new framework offers a valuable tool for companies in product innovation and market strategy development.
Originality/value
This study introduces a novel approach to opinion mining by focusing on the underutilized insights of weak experts. It combines few-shot sentiment analysis with specialization weighting and AHP, offering a comprehensive and efficient tool for product evaluation and market analysis.
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Hang Zhu, Pengxiang Zhang, Xiaoyan Han and Ting Huang
The purpose of this paper is to unveil how family involvement in management teams of private Chinese companies affects professional managers’ psychological ownership and sense of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to unveil how family involvement in management teams of private Chinese companies affects professional managers’ psychological ownership and sense of “us”, in the hopes of understanding why their devotion cannot coexist with the higher level of commitment of family managers.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper includes two main studies. The first uses regression to analyze survey data provided by 165 professional managers working in Chinese private companies. The second is a scenario experiment in which 106 MBA candidates participate.
Findings
The study finds that there is a negative relationship between family management involvement and professional managers’ perceived relationship closeness to owners and psychological ownership of firms. It also finds that relationship closeness fully mediates the negative influence of family management involvement on managers’ psychological ownership.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to both the theoretical literature and management practice. From a theoretical perspective, it connects studies in indigenous sociological psychology with new literature on psychological ownership. The paper finds that personal relationships nurture the shared psychological ownership of managers by generating a sense of “us”, providing a new theoretical explanation for its formation process. Furthermore, this study offers an explanation for the negative signal effect of family involvement in management. From a practical perspective, this study finds that family involvement in management acts as a critical boundary condition for using personal relationships to stimulate professional managers.
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Pan Liu, Xiaoyan Cui, Ziran Zhang, Wenwen Zhou and Yue Long
The purpose of this paper is to solve new pricing issues faced by low-carbon companies in the Yellow River Basin, which is caused by the change of key pricing factors in the mixed…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to solve new pricing issues faced by low-carbon companies in the Yellow River Basin, which is caused by the change of key pricing factors in the mixed appliance background of Big Data and blockchain, such as product quality and carbon-emission reduction CER level (hereafter, CER level).
Design/methodology/approach
We choose a low-carbon supply chain with a low-carbon manufacturer and a retailer as our research object. Then, we propose that using the ineffective effect of the CER level and the quality and safety level to reflect the relationships among the CER level, the quality and safety level and the market demand is more suitable in the new environment. Based on these, we revise the demand equation. Afterwards, by using Stackelberg game, four cost-sharing situations and their pricing rules are analyzed.
Findings
Results indicated that in the four cost-sharing situations, the change trends and the magnitudes of the best retail prices were not affected by the changes of the inputs of the demand information and the traceability services costs (hereafter, DITS costs), the proportion about retailer's DITS costs undertaken by the manufacturer, the ineffective effect coefficient of the CER level and the quality and safety level and the cost optimization coefficient. However, the cost-sharing situations could affect the change magnitudes of the best revenues.
Originality/value
This paper has two main contributions. First, this paper proposes a demand function that is more suitable for the mixed appliance background of Big Data and blockchain. Secondly, this paper improves the cost-sharing model and finds that demand information sharing and traceability service sharing have different impacts on key pricing factors of low-carbon product. In addition, this research provides a theoretical reference for low-carbon supply chain members to formulate pricing strategies in the new background.
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Yupeng Mou, Shishu Zhang, Xiaoyan Qi, Zhihua Ding and Jing Huang
Addressing users’ migration is a prerequisite for the sustainable development of the sharing economy. Ethical concerns that may lead to users’ migration are frequent in sharing…
Abstract
Purpose
Addressing users’ migration is a prerequisite for the sustainable development of the sharing economy. Ethical concerns that may lead to users’ migration are frequent in sharing economy platforms. Therefore, this study explores whether the long-term governance of sharing economy platforms can effectively mitigate users’ migration caused by ethical concerns.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a questionnaire survey of 549 participants, this study investigated the mechanism of users’ migration and governance strategies in the platform ecosystem based on trust theory.
Findings
The results indicate that users’ ethical concerns regarding the platform ecosystem significantly and positively influence their migration. Furthermore, users’ continued trust played a significant mediating role in the relationship between ethical concerns and users’ migration. The results also showed that future orientation and resilience significantly moderated the impact of users’ ethical concerns on their continued trust, thereby weakening this effect.
Practical implications
The author clarified the relationship between ethical concerns and users’ migration, identified the underlying mechanisms and provided guidance on how to mitigate migration behavior. However, users’ migration is influenced by various factors beyond ethical concerns. In addition to some factors that lead to migration, other factors make users stay on the platform. Future research should integrate multiple factors.
Originality/value
This study reveals the mechanism of action between users’ migration and ethical concerns in the platform ecosystem and sheds light on the output of long-term orientation practices of the platform.
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Jun Zhang, Meng Wang, Pu Liu, Xiaoyan Zhang, Ting Huo, Zhengcan Chen, Chunli Liu, Boyuan Zhang, Shengyuan Zhao and Zhenbin Chen
In this study, a novel glutathione (GSH) surface molecular imprinting polymer (SMIP) was successfully prepared by using macroporous adsorption resins (MAR) as substrate, which…
Abstract
Purpose
In this study, a novel glutathione (GSH) surface molecular imprinting polymer (SMIP) was successfully prepared by using macroporous adsorption resins (MAR) as substrate, which could separate and purify GSH efficiently.
Design/methodology/approach
SMIP was synthesized by chloromethylated modified MAR (LX1180-Cl) as the substrate, N, N’-methylenebisacrylamide (NMBA) as a crosslinker, GSH as a template, acrylamide (AM) and N-vinylpyrrolidone (NVP) as functional monomers. The morphology and structure of the polymer were characterized by scanning electron microscope and Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy.
Findings
The maximum adsorption capacity toward GSH was 39.0 mg/g and the separation decree had relation to L-cysteine (L-cys) was 4.2. The optimal operation conditions were studied in detail and the got as follows: the molar ratios of NMBA, AM, GSH and NVP, were 7.0, 0.8 and 0.5. The optimal time and temperature were 14 h and 40°C, respectively. The Langmuir and pseudo-first-order model were fitting these adsorption characteristics well.
Practical implications
GSH has a diversity of medicinal and bioactive functions, so the purpose of this study representing a method in separate and purify technology of GSH, which provided a way for the development of medicine.
Originality/value
This contribution provided a novel way to separate GSH from L-cys. Under the optimal conditions, the maximum adsorption capacity toward GSH was 39.0 mg/g and the separation decree had relation to L-cys was 4.2.