Jingang Jiang, Yan Shuang Bai, Dian Hao Wu, Yan Xin Yu, Xue Feng Ma and Chuan Lin
The cable inspection robot is essential in maintaining bridge cables. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the maintenance methods of bridge cables. It summarizes the…
Abstract
Purpose
The cable inspection robot is essential in maintaining bridge cables. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the maintenance methods of bridge cables. It summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of the critical structures of the external overall frame, intermediate adhesion device, attachment mechanism and driving method of the cable inspection robot. Finally, it discusses the challenges the cable inspection robot faces and the direction of future research.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper summarizes the research progress of the cable inspection robot and details the advantages and disadvantages of critical structures such as the external frame, intermediate adhesion device, attachment mechanism, driving method and safe return device of the robot. Finally, it points out the future direction of cable inspection robots, including lightweight design, hybrid design, multi-robot cooperative work, multi-technology integration and intelligent cable inspection digital twin model.
Findings
The cables are the main load-bearing components of a bridge, and their safety is crucial. However, subjected to varying loads and environmental influences over a long period, cables are prone to damage, threatening the bridge’s stability. Cable inspection robots can comprehensively detect and repair cable damage, significantly improving efficiency and safety.
Originality/value
This paper provides a comprehensive review of the current research on cable inspection robots, enabling readers to have a comprehensive and systematic understanding of the critical structures and key technologies of cable inspection robots and providing scientific references for researchers working on cable inspection robots.
Details
Keywords
Xiaojie Xu and Yun Zhang
The Chinese housing market has witnessed rapid growth during the past decade and the significance of housing price forecasting has undoubtedly elevated, becoming an important…
Abstract
Purpose
The Chinese housing market has witnessed rapid growth during the past decade and the significance of housing price forecasting has undoubtedly elevated, becoming an important issue to investors and policymakers. This study aims to examine neural networks (NNs) for office property price index forecasting from 10 major Chinese cities for July 2005–April 2021.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors aim at building simple and accurate NNs to contribute to pure technical forecasts of the Chinese office property market. To facilitate the analysis, the authors explore different model settings over algorithms, delays, hidden neurons and data-spitting ratios.
Findings
The authors reach a simple NN with three delays and three hidden neurons, which leads to stable performance of about 1.45% average relative root mean square error across the 10 cities for the training, validation and testing phases.
Originality/value
The results could be used on a standalone basis or combined with fundamental forecasts to form perspectives of office property price trends and conduct policy analysis.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical historical analysis of the business (mis)behaviors and influencing factors that discourage enduring cooperation between…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical historical analysis of the business (mis)behaviors and influencing factors that discourage enduring cooperation between principals and agents, to introduce strategies that embrace the social values, economic motivation and institutional designs historically adopted to curtail dishonest acts in international business and to inform an improved principal–agent theory that reflects principal–agent reciprocity as shaped by social, political, cultural, economic, strategic and ideological forces
Design/methodology/approach
The critical historical research method is used to analyze Chinese compradors and the foreign companies they served in pre-1949 China.
Findings
Business practitioners can extend orthodox principal–agent theory by scrutinizing the complex interactions between local agents and foreign companies. Instead of agents pursuing their economic interests exclusively, as posited by principal–agent theory, they also may pursue principal-shared interests (as suggested by stewardship theory) because of social norms and cultural values that can affect business-related choices and the social bonds built between principals and agents.
Research limitations/implications
The behaviors of compradors and foreign companies in pre-1949 China suggest international business practices for shaping social bonds between principals and agents and foreign principals’ creative efforts to enhance shared interests with local agents.
Practical implications
Understanding principal–agent theory’s limitations can help international management scholars and practitioners mitigate transaction partners’ dishonest acts.
Originality/value
A critical historical analysis of intermediary businesspeople’s (mis)behavior in pre-1949 (1840–1949) China can inform the generalizability of principal–agent theory and contemporary business strategies for minimizing agents’ dishonest acts.
Details
Keywords
This study aims to understand the epistemic foundation of the classification applied in the first Chinese library catalogue, the Seven Epitomes (Qilue).
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to understand the epistemic foundation of the classification applied in the first Chinese library catalogue, the Seven Epitomes (Qilue).
Design/methodology/approach
Originating from a theoretical stance that situates knowledge organization in its social context, the study applies a multifaceted framework pertaining to five categories of textual data: the Seven Epitomes; biographical information about the classificationist Liu Xin; and the relevant intellectual, political, and technological history.
Findings
The study discovers seven principles contributing to the epistemic foundation of the catalogue's classification: the Han imperial library collection imposed as the literary warrant; government functions considered for structuring texts; classicist morality determining the main classificatory structure; knowledge perceived and organized as a unity; objects, rather than subjects, of concern affecting categories at the main class level; correlative thinking connecting all text categories to a supreme knowledge embodied by the Six Classics; and classicist moral values resulting in both vertical and horizontal hierarchies among categories as well as texts.
Research limitations/implications
A major limitation of the study is its focus on the main classes, with limited attention to subclasses. Future research can extend the analysis to examine subclasses of the same scheme. Findings from these studies may lead to a comparison between the epistemic approach in the target classification and the analytic one common in today's bibliographic classification.
Originality/value
The study is the first to examine in depth the epistemic foundation of traditional Chinese bibliographic classification, anchoring the classification in its appropriate social and historical context.
Details
Keywords
This chapter examines China’s corporate governance and accounting environment that shapes the adoption of internationally acceptable principles and standards. Specifically, it…
Abstract
This chapter examines China’s corporate governance and accounting environment that shapes the adoption of internationally acceptable principles and standards. Specifically, it examines international influences, including supranational organizations; foreign investors and international accounting firms; domestic institutional influences, including the political system, economic system, legal system, and cultural system; and accounting infrastructure. China’s convergence is driven by desired efficiency of the corporate sector and legitimacy of participating in the global market. Influenced heavily by international forces in the context of globalization, corporate governance and accounting practices are increasingly becoming in line with internationally acceptable standards and codes. While convergence assists China in obtaining legitimacy, improving efficiency is likely to be adversely affected given that corporate governance and accounting in China operate in an environment that differs considerably from those of Anglo-American countries. An examination of the corporate governance and accounting environment in China suggests heavy government involvement within underdeveloped institutions. While the Chinese government has made impressive progress in developing the corporate governance and accounting environment for the market economy, China’s unique institutional setting is likely to affect how the imported concepts are interpreted and implemented.
Details
Keywords
Qiuming Zhang, Chao Yu, Xue Yang and Xin Gu
This study aims to analyse the relationship between a patent’s network position in a knowledge search network and the likelihood and speed of patent transactions. Additionally, it…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyse the relationship between a patent’s network position in a knowledge search network and the likelihood and speed of patent transactions. Additionally, it explores whether patent scope moderates these relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
In this empirical study, the authors collected a sample of patents in the artificial intelligence industry over the period of 1985–2018. Then, the authors examined the direct roles of degree centrality, betweenness centrality and closeness centrality on the likelihood and speed of patent transactions and the moderating role of patent scope in the knowledge search network using the logit and accelerated failure time models.
Findings
The findings reveal that degree centrality positively affects both the likelihood and speed of patent transactions, while betweenness centrality enhances the likelihood, and closeness centrality significantly boosts both. However, regarding the speed of patent transactions, closeness centrality is the most impactful, followed by degree centrality, with no significant influence of betweenness centrality. Additionally, the patent scope moderates how betweenness centrality affects the likelihood of transactions.
Research limitations/implications
This study has limitations owing to its exclusive use of data from the Chinese Intellectual Property Office, lack of visibility of the confidential terms of most patent transactions, omission of transaction directionality and focus on a single industry, potentially restricting the breadth and applicability of the findings. In the future, expanding the data set and industries and combining qualitative research methods may be considered to further explore the content of this study.
Practical implications
This study has practical implications for developing a better understanding of how network structure in the knowledge search network affects the likelihood and speed of patent transactions as well as the identification of high-value patents. These findings suggest future directions for patent holders and policymakers to manage and optimise patent portfolios.
Originality/value
This study expands the application boundaries of social network theory and the knowledge-based view by conducting an in-depth analysis of how the position characteristics of patents within the knowledge search network influence their potential and speed of transactions in the technology market. Moreover, it provides a theoretical reference for evaluating patent value and identifying high-quality patents by quantifying network positions. Furthermore, the authors construct three centrality measures and explore the development of patent transactions, particularly within the context of the developing country.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to collect and compile the historical data of Guanfu Salt Farm, officially built by the Song Dynasty (960–1279) within modern Hong Kong territories, to reconstruct…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to collect and compile the historical data of Guanfu Salt Farm, officially built by the Song Dynasty (960–1279) within modern Hong Kong territories, to reconstruct its history for the reflection of Hong Kong society of the time.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is largely based on identification and analysis of historical documents, including keyword search on electronic databases and verification with the original sources, with reference to archaeological findings when necessary.
Findings
This paper reconstructs the history of Guanfu Salt Farm based on documentary sources with reference to archaeological findings. English translation of Chinese sources is also provided when necessary.
Originality/value
There has been an absence of systematic compilation of historical data of Hong Kong during the Song Dynasty, which are limited in quantity and scattered across different sources. This paper seeks to fill the vacuum of knowledge about pre-colonial Hong Kong, with a more comprehensive reconstruction of the history of Guanfu Salt Farm.
Details
Keywords
Zibo Li, Zhengxiang Yan, Shicheng Li, Guangmin Sun, Xin Wang, Dequn Zhao, Yu Li and Xiucheng Liu
The purpose of this paper is to overcome the application limitations of other multi-variable regression based on polynomials due to the huge computation room and time cost.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to overcome the application limitations of other multi-variable regression based on polynomials due to the huge computation room and time cost.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, based on the idea of feature selection and cascaded regression, two strategies including Laguerre polynomials and manifolds optimization are proposed to enhance the accuracy of multi-variable regression. Laguerre polynomials were combined with the genetic algorithm to enhance the capacity of polynomials approximation and the manifolds optimization method was introduced to solve the co-related optimization problem.
Findings
Two multi-variable Laguerre polynomials regression methods are designed. Firstly, Laguerre polynomials are combined with feature selection method. Secondly, manifolds component analysis is adopted in cascaded Laguerre polynomials regression method. Two methods are brought to enhance the accuracy of multi-variable regression method.
Research limitations/implications
With the increasing number of variables in regression problem, the stable accuracy performance might not be kept by using manifold-based optimization method. Moreover, the methods mentioned in this paper are not suitable for the classification problem.
Originality/value
Experiments are conducted on three types of datasets to evaluate the performance of the proposed regression methods. The best accuracy was achieved by the combination of cascade, manifold optimization and Chebyshev polynomials, which implies that the manifolds optimization has stronger contribution than the genetic algorithm and Laguerre polynomials.
Details
Keywords
Yudan Dou, Wenjuan Hou, Xueya Yan, Xin Jin and Pan Li
Prefabricated construction (PC) is increasingly recognized for its sustainability and is being vigorously promoted worldwide. However, its adoption in developing countries remains…
Abstract
Purpose
Prefabricated construction (PC) is increasingly recognized for its sustainability and is being vigorously promoted worldwide. However, its adoption in developing countries remains suboptimal, with existing studies predominantly focusing on policy frameworks or the impact of a single policy instrument. This study addresses this research gap by optimizing the path of PC promotion from the perspective of policy mixes.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) in conjunction with necessary condition analysis, to explore effective policy configurations for PC promotion. A comprehensive collection of 171 PC-related policies issued by the Chinese government was analyzed using text mining to identify antecedent conditions of configuration. Data were further obtained through a questionnaire survey involving 263 valid responses, with fsQCA used to derive the optimal policy configurations.
Findings
The analysis identified six distinct combination paths for effective policy configurations. Land supply and governmental procurement were found to be core conditions, while fiscal and taxation financial measures emerged as marginal conditions prevalent across all paths. These findings suggest that land supply policies are particularly suitable for regions with limited land resources, such as Shanghai, while government procurement is more effective in regions like Xinjiang, where PC awareness is still developing.
Practical implications
In practice, the conclusions enable policymakers to clearly understand policy instruments, thereby finding differentiated pathways for promoting PC with comparable effects. The proposed recommendations help advance PC development effectively while reducing financial burden and minimizing resource waste. This provides important guidance for PC development across different regions or stages, helps address regional imbalances in PC development, and ultimately contributes to the broader goal of sustainable urban development.
Originality/value
This study significantly enriches the research on PC policy combinations by utilizing more comprehensive and robust data, thereby enhancing the universal applicability of the findings. The results provide valuable references for policymakers in different regions, helping to address regional imbalances in PC development and facilitating the construction industry’s transition towards greater intelligence and sustainability.
Details
Keywords
Lixia Wang, Xin Zhang, Beibei Yan and Vigdis Boasson
This paper aims to examine the internal logical relationship between two intergenerational inheritance ways of passing property rights and residual control rights (RCR) and to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the internal logical relationship between two intergenerational inheritance ways of passing property rights and residual control rights (RCR) and to construct a conceptual model comprising transfer elements, paths and timing of succession in this process.
Design/methodology/approach
Driven by the cases of Haixin, Tianyijiao and Changhe Group, this paper applies research methods of copying and expanding analysis logic, progressive deduction, content analysis and comparative research based on the perspective of HeXie theory to explore the deep interrelation of transfer elements, paths and timing during family business succession.
Findings
The findings present that the content of intergenerational inheritance of a family firm is the inheritance of property rights and RCR. First, the inheritance of property rights is a static inheritance of time-point delivery, whereas the inheritance of RCR is a dynamic inheritance process for a period of time. Second, the inheritance of property rights and RCR are not independent; only a “HeXie” succession of both rights can realize a successful inheritance of family firms.
Originality/value
This paper constructs the paths and timing model of intergenerational inheritance of property rights and RCR in family firms. This paper integrates the current literature studies on the family inheritance of property rights and RCR and explains their internal mechanisms. This paper also provides a theoretical foundation and empirical evidence for family business transitions in the business world.