Lu Zhang, Wan Yang and Xiaoyun Zheng
The purpose of this study is to understand the joint effects of individuals’ need for status and processing fluency on customer attitudes toward hotels’ participation in corporate…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to understand the joint effects of individuals’ need for status and processing fluency on customer attitudes toward hotels’ participation in corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a 2 (Need for status: high vs low) × 2 (Processing fluency: high vs low) experimental design with processing fluency being manipulated and individuals’ need for status being measured.
Findings
The results indicate that although high-need for status customers exhibit a more positive attitude than low-need for status customers when the CSR message is easy to process, they show similar attitude levels when processing fluency is relatively low.
Originality/value
This study makes great contribution to the literature of status consumption by examining CSR as one of the new areas that consumers use to signal social status beyond luxury products. For practitioners, the results of this study offer suggestions on how to design CSR messages to increase its effectiveness.
Details
Keywords
Although China has instituted compulsory education through Grade 9, it is still unclear whether students are, in fact, staying in school. In this paper, the authors use a…
Abstract
Purpose
Although China has instituted compulsory education through Grade 9, it is still unclear whether students are, in fact, staying in school. In this paper, the authors use a multi-year (2003–2011) longitudinal survey data set on rural households in 102–130 villages across 30 provinces in China to examine the extent to which students still drop out of school prior to finishing compulsory education.
Design/methodology/approach
To examine the correlates of dropping out, the study uses ordinary least squares and multivariate probit models.
Findings
Dropout rate from junior high school was still high (14%) in 2011, even though it fell across the study period. There was heterogeneity in the measured dropout rate. There was great variation among different regions, and especially among different villages. In all, 10% of the sample villages showed extremely high rates during the study period and actually rose over time. Household characteristics associated with poverty and the opportunity cost of staying in school were significantly and negatively correlated with the completion of nine years of schooling.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this study suggest that China needs to take additional steps to overcome the barriers keeping children from completing nine years of schooling if they hope to either achieve their goal of having all children complete nine years of school or extend compulsory schooling to the end of twelfth grade.
Originality/value
The authors seek to measure the prevalence of both compulsory education rates of dropouts and rates of completion in China. The study examines the correlates of dropping out at the lower secondary schooling level as a way of understanding what types of students (from what types of villages) are not complying with national schooling regulations. To overcome the methodological shortcomings of previous research on dropout in China, the study uses a nationally representative, longitudinal data set based on household surveys collected between 2003 and 2011.
Details
Keywords
Paul Tang, Jennifer Y.M. Lai, Xiaoyun Chen and Siu Fong Isabel Fu
Drawing on social exchange theory, this study aims to investigate the reciprocal relationship between an employee’s knowledge sharing and his or her coworkers’ responses to this…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on social exchange theory, this study aims to investigate the reciprocal relationship between an employee’s knowledge sharing and his or her coworkers’ responses to this focal contributor in terms of knowledge sharing and helping behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
A two-wave online survey collected data from 84 respondents who provided ratings on each member on their team, representing 440 dyadic relationships. Hierarchical linear modeling analyzed the between-subjects and within-subject data simultaneously.
Findings
Employees generally reciprocate contributors’ knowledge sharing with an exact act (i.e. knowledge sharing) through the mechanism of peer respect. However, respect generated by knowledge sharing is enhanced only when the knowledge contributor is competent.
Originality/value
Research on how an employee’s knowledge sharing actually influences other members of a team is lacking. This study addresses this gap by examining responses to a team member’s knowledge sharing from a peer’s perspective. It also reveals when knowledge sharing is more pronounced in earning peer respect.
Details
Keywords
Qian Sun, Xiaoyun Li and Dil Bahadur Rahut
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of urbanicity on rural–urban migrants' dietary diversity and nutrition intake and whether its effect differs across various…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of urbanicity on rural–urban migrants' dietary diversity and nutrition intake and whether its effect differs across various urban environments of migrants.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the individual- and time-invariant fixed effects (two-way FE) model and five-year panel data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), this paper estimates a linear and nonlinear relationship between urbanicity and nutrition. The paper also explores the spatial heterogeneity between rural–urban migrants and rural–suburban migrants. Dietary diversity, total energy intake and the shares of energy obtained from protein and fat, respectively, are used to measure rural–urban migrants' nutrition on both quality and quantity aspects.
Findings
The study shows that rural–urban migrants have experienced access to more diverse, convenient and prepared foods, and the food variety consumed is positively associated with community urbanicity. Energy intake is positively and significantly affected by community urbanicity, and it also varies with per capita household income. The obvious inverse U-shaped relationship reveals that improving community urbanicity promotes an increase in the shares of energy obtained from protein and fat at a decreasing rate, until reaching the urbanicity index threshold of 66.69 and 54.26, respectively.
Originality/value
This paper focuses on the nutritional status of rural–urban migrants, an important pillar for China's development, which is often neglected in the research. It examines the urbanicity and the nutrition of migrants in China, which provides a new perspective to understand the dietary and nutritional intake among migrants in the economic and social development. Moreover, the urbanicity index performs better at measuring urban feathers rather than the traditional rural/urban dichotomous classification.
Details
Keywords
Xiaoyun Liu, Xiuqing Wang and Xian Xin
China's agricultural sector has developed very rapidly in the past 30 years and agricultural technological progress is deemed one of the most substantial factors leading to its…
Abstract
Purpose
China's agricultural sector has developed very rapidly in the past 30 years and agricultural technological progress is deemed one of the most substantial factors leading to its rapid agricultural GDP growth. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impacts of China's agricultural technological changes on its regional disparity.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of multiple regions and multiple sectors to investigate the impacts of agricultural technological changes on regional disparity. The CGE model structure includes production side, demand side, and market clearing conditions.
Findings
The results suggest that agricultural technological changes significantly reduced China's agricultural regional disparity and accounted for 40 percent reduction in agricultural regional disparity in terms of agricultural GDP per capita. Agricultural technological changes, however, led to an increase in China's overall regional disparity and accounted for 6 percent increase in its overall regional disparity in terms of per capita GDP.
Practical implications
China's GDP has been growing very rapidly since 1978 and agricultural GDP has been playing a decreasing role in China's overall GDP. Regional disparity in non‐agricultural GDP per capita overweighted the equalization of agricultural GDP per capita. The results imply that the Chinese government should resort more to non‐agricultural development to fight against the enlarging regional disparity.
Originality/value
China's agricultural technological changes have led to an increase in China's overall regional disparity while the changes have significantly reduced China's agricultural regional disparity.
Details
Keywords
In this paper, the authors take the central environmental protection inspection (CEPI) as an exogenous shock to study the reaction of the stock market in China. Using the event…
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper, the authors take the central environmental protection inspection (CEPI) as an exogenous shock to study the reaction of the stock market in China. Using the event study method, the authors check how the first round of the first batch of CEPI supervision affects the cumulative abnormal return (CAR) of the listed firms on the Shenzhen or Shanghai stock exchange. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned objective.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors take the first round of the first batch of CEPI supervision as a clean exogenous shock to study its effects on the capital market. The authors collect daily trading data from the China stock market and accounting research (CSMAR) database, with the sample containing 1,950 Chinese firms listed on either the Shenzhen or Shanghai stock exchanges. And detailed information on CEPI supervision is obtained from the official website of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China. The event study method is adopted to analyze the reaction of the stock market under CEPI supervision. Specifically, the authors constructed the cumulative abnormal return of each firm around the event day of CEPI. To capture the deterrent effects of CEPI supervision, the authors examine the situation of polluting and non-polluting firms in the supervised provinces, adjacent provinces and provinces that are not supervised or close to the supervised provinces, respectively.
Findings
This paper throws light on the following: (1) the polluting firms in the supervised provinces were negatively impacted by CEPI within 20 trading days of the event day, and its effects spread to the polluting firms in the neighboring provinces; (2) CEPI had a favorable impact on the non-polluting businesses in the provinces that are neither supervised nor close to the supervised provinces. The authors contend that it is because the investment is being forced out of the polluting sector and into the non-polluting sector, which is more pronounced in the provinces not directly or indirectly targeted by CEPI; (3) by comparison, the “looking back monitoring of the first round” has had no discernible detrimental impact on the firms' CAR, indicating an important role of psychology anticipation of investors in the stock market performance; (4) although not physically located in the supervised provinces, the downstream enterprises of the polluting firms suffer significantly from CEPI shock; (5) the effectiveness of CEPI supervision in the supervised provinces depends on the level of local environmental regulation and the ownership structure of the company. Private firms in the provinces with stronger environmental regulations suffer more from the CEPI shock; (6) the multivariate analysis shows that while enterprises with high ROE and financial leverage may be at risk of CAR loss, older, larger firms are less likely to experience CEPI shock; (7) the study of persistent effect reveals that the strike of CEPI supervision can last for at least 10 months after the event day and deterrent effect can be spread within the whole polluting industry.
Research limitations/implications
In this paper, the authors only concentrate on the market reaction within 20 trading days after the event day. An analysis of long-term effects should be valuable to get a deeper knowledge of the capital market reaction to the CEPI policy. In addition, the paper only focuses on the first round of the first batch of CEPI. Since CEPI has been built as a constant regulation of local environmental performance, further study may need to track both the reaction of listed firms and investment behavior in the capital market.
Practical implications
Policy implications of the paper are as follows: First, for the policymakers, it is important to construct a constant environmental regulation system instead of a campaign movement. Second, for investors, as environmental issues are receiving increasing attention from both the government and the public, investment decisions should take into account firms' environmental performance, which can help reduce the risk from environmental regulations. Third, the firms in the polluting industry should take more action to reduce pollutant releases and adopt green technology, which is essential for sustainable development under environmental protection.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the existing literature in the following aspects. First, the authors provide new evidence on the effects of environmental regulations as a shock to the stock market, which has been wildly concentrated in the literature about environmental policies evaluation and capital market reaction. Second, the authors supplement the literature on green finance and sustainability transformation, which has got increasing attention in recent years. Theoretically, by guiding investment and affecting the stock market performance, environmental regulations are considered to be an efficient way to stimulate polluting firms to transform into green development. The results of the paper support this intuition by showing that the CAR of the non-polluting firms in non-supervised provinces in fact benefit from the CEPI supervision.
Details
Keywords
Qianqian Ju, Yan Wang, Hui Liu, Xiaoyun Du and Yifei Li
Stakeholders in complex capital projects are characterized by complicated interactions, adversarial short-term relationships and cooperative demand for deliverables. Unhealthy…
Abstract
Purpose
Stakeholders in complex capital projects are characterized by complicated interactions, adversarial short-term relationships and cooperative demand for deliverables. Unhealthy interfaces between stakeholders often lead to significant interface conflicts, which gradually become apparent in the construction stage. However, stakeholder interface health (SIH) has not been well understood and measured in the construction industry by either scholars or practitioners. It is essential to identify unhealthy interface relationships between stakeholders by comprehensively assessing SIH for enhancing project performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The study provided a comprehensive framework to assess SIH. The assessment was based on Wuli-Shili-Renli theory. Moreover, the CRITIC and Grey-TOPSIS methodologies were applied to precisely evaluate the SIH level. Besides, graph-based interface networks were developed to visualize SIH. At last, the framework was applied to a mass rapid transit project in China to test the validity of the study.
Findings
The result showed that stakeholder interfaces with strict contract constraints are healthier. On the other hand, IM behaviors make up for the soft coordination mechanism without contract constraints to a certain extent. The results of the case study were consistent with the actual project practices. The proposed framework provided a useful IM tool for assessing and visualizing SIH.
Research limitations/implications
The limitation of this study is that only the mass rapid transit project was selected for empirical analysis to validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework. It is recommended that the proposed framework be applied to other types of complex capital projects to further discussions in IM.
Practical implications
Theoretically, this study introduces a comprehensive framework to measure the health of stakeholder interfaces in complex capital projects, which helps to provide a theoretical basis and methodological support for stakeholder interface management.
Social implications
Practically, applying SIH assessment to existing interface management procedures can help the project manager identify interface conflicts between stakeholders in time and eventually contribute to the improvement of PM performance. At the same time, the interface management team tracks the responsibilities of unhealthy interface stakeholders and requires them to take measures to improve the SIH level. Stakeholder interfaces with lower health scores should be given more attention. The proposed framework can serve as a novel IM approach to identify weaknesses in IM and take targeted management measures to alleviate unhealthy stakeholder interface relationships.
Originality/value
The study provides an innovative method for scientifically and accurately assessing SIH. This research can help scholars and practitioners in the project management field facilitate the diagnosis of unhealthy interface relationships and provide decision support for the project management theoretical foundation.
Details
Keywords
Jiamin Peng, Xiaoyun Yang, Xinhua Guan, Lian Zhou and Tzung-Cheng Huan
Integrating conservation of resources (COR) and complexity theories, this study aims to develop and assess a research model of the relationship between job dissatisfaction and…
Abstract
Purpose
Integrating conservation of resources (COR) and complexity theories, this study aims to develop and assess a research model of the relationship between job dissatisfaction and brand sabotage behavior (BSB) based on the moderating mechanism of psychological resources (i.e. brand-based role identity and relational energy). The interdependence between these influencing factors is analyzed from the perspective of social science holism.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 381 valid questionnaires were collected from frontliners serving in full-service restaurants in Guangzhou, China. Regression analysis was used to test the research hypotheses and combined with fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to identify the complex triggering mechanism of BSB.
Findings
Job dissatisfaction is positively related to BSB, brand-based role identity internalization and relational energy weaken this effect, whereas brand-based role identity compliance strengthens it. Qualitative comparative analysis shows that a single condition does not constitute a necessary condition for BSB. The interdependence of job dissatisfaction and employee psychological resources forms multiple asymmetric paths that trigger high and low BSB.
Practical implications
The findings can be used by catering organizations as guidelines for conducting training for brand internalization, formulating strategies to avoid BSB among employees and strengthening brand building.
Originality/value
This study is the first to integrate COR and complexity theories to comprehensively analyze how BSB is formed among dissatisfied employees. The authors advance theory by distinguishing the role of brand psychological resources (i.e. brand-based role identity) and psychological resources obtained from the environment (i.e. relational energy) in stimulating or buffering dissatisfied employees to engage in BSB.
Details
Keywords
Xiaoyun Li, Suicheng Li, Jianqi Qiao and Mengchao Wu
This study aims to develop a moderated mediation model to explain the practices of supply base management and how they can achieve innovation performance, and the authors explore…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to develop a moderated mediation model to explain the practices of supply base management and how they can achieve innovation performance, and the authors explore the boundary conditions of this implementation mechanism.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used the bootstrap procedure to conduct empirical tests on 328 Chinese manufacturers to verify the proposed model.
Findings
The results showed that supplier innovation focus, supply-base structuring and long-term relationship focus have a positive impact on innovation performance through supplier innovativeness, and the mediation performs differently under technology and demand uncertainty.
Research limitations/implications
The authors only focused on innovation performance, and it does not explore the links between supply base management and other performance outcomes. This study involves part of the supply network which is easier to manage, i.e. supply base. The authors ignored the importance of other members in supply network. Finally, the data obtained in this study belong to the cross-sectional data during the same period but it accomplishes the research aim well.
Practical implications
The focal firm needs to improve their supply base composition, establish permeable organizational boundaries, and build long-term strategic partnerships characterized by equality and trust with suppliers to stimulate supply base members to make innovative contributions.
Originality/value
This study complements the implementation path of manufacturers around innovation, emphasizing multidimensional characteristics of supply base management. And this study clarifies the mechanism and boundary conditions between supply base management and innovation performance.