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In 1998, the Chinese Communist Party introduced the strategy for modernizing agriculture with large-scale production and launching large commercial enterprises known as dragon head enterprises (DHEs) to process and market agricultural products. Although scholars have raised awareness of the development of DHEs in China, there has been little investigation on DHEs in the Chinese wine business. Based on the existing theoretical background on the concept of DHEs, this study aims to identify the structure and operating system of a DHE in the Chinese wine business. Changyu is chosen as an example because it is the oldest and largest wine company in China, operating in various grape-growing regions.

Due to the research's explorative character, the qualitative approach and case study focus were considered adequate. In-depth interviews have been conducted with the employees of the company. The authors analysed data with a qualitative content approach of Gläser and Laudel (2010).

Results show that the grape procurement of Changyu is organized in an integrated system, which consists of the DHE (Changyu), the Changyu-led cooperative, and the grape producers who have a contract with the cooperative. The company takes different measures in terms of intra-organizational coordination to secure the required quantities and qualities of its grape supply base.

In this research, the authors could only access three interview partners of Changyu's grape procurement department, and it was not possible to conduct interviews with the management of Changyu. Another limitation is that it is difficult to collect adequate data in the Chinese wine industry.

There has been little investigation on DHEs in the Chinese wine business. This research contributes to the existing literature as it takes a closer look at the structure and operating system of a DHE in the Chinese wine business. The case study and chosen example (Changyu) allow a better understanding of DHEs and provide first insights into their operating principle.

Soft robotics is a burgeoning field owing to its high adaptability and safety in human–machine interaction and unstructured environments. However, the feedback control of soft actuators with flexible sensors is still a challenge.

To address this issue, this study proposes an optical fibre-based sensing membrane for the posture measurement of soft pneumatic bending actuators. The major contribution is the development of a flexible sensing membrane with a high sensitivity and repeatability for the feedback control of soft actuators. The characteristics of sensing membrane were analysed. The relationship between wavelength shift and bending curvature was derived. The curvatures of soft actuator were measured at four bending status, and the postures were reconstructed.

The results indicate that the measurement error is less than 2.1% of the actual bending curvature. The sensitivity is up to 212.8 pm/m⁻¹, and the signal fluctuation in repeated measurements is negligible. This approach has broad application prospects in soft robotics, because it makes the optical fibre achieve more strength and compatible with soft actuators, thus improving the sensing accuracy, sensitivity and reliability of fibre sensors.

Different from previous approaches, an optical fibre with FBGs is embedded into a multilayered polyimide film to form a flexible sensing membrane, and the membrane is embedded into a soft pneumatic bending actuator as the smart strain limited layer which is able to measure the posture in real time. This approach makes the optical fibre stronger and compatible with the soft pneumatic bending actuator, and the sensing accuracy, sensitivity and reliability are improved. The proposed sensing configuration is effective for the feedback control of the soft pneumatic bending actuators.

In the absence of previous work, this study investigates how the psychological contract (PC) influences the safety performance of construction workers in China.

The literature is first consulted to obtain a set of PC and safety performance measures that fits the specific situation of construction workers, which is then moderated by five construction experts. A questionnaire survey of 206 workers from 4 different construction sites is followed by a descriptive statistical analysis of the nature of the PC and level of the safety performance of the respondents. Finally, a regression analysis is used to ascertain the level of influence of the PS, and an analysis is made of the influence of PC on safety performance.

A set of PC and safety performance measures is identified that fits in the construction workers' specific situation. The PC of the respondents is found to be intact and well-performed, and their safety performance is maintained at a high level. Safety performance is highly influenced by the state of the PC, with the three dimensions of safety performance (safety result, safety compliance and safety participation) positively correlated with the three dimensions of the PC (normative, interpersonal and developmental).

Suggestions are made to improve safety production management and safety performance by providing adequate material and economic conditions, helping the workers establish good interpersonal relationships and realize their personal values.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the interaction effect of placement characteristics and emotional experiences on consumers’ recognition of placed brands. Brand recognition is a fundamental step in the consumer’s decision-making journey.

The authors developed a research model based on emotional process theory and cognitive capacity theory incorporating placement characteristics, emotional experiences and brand recognition. An experimental study of 110 young Chinese consumers was conducted to test the research model.

The findings indicated that all three placement characteristics (prominence, serial positions and plot connection) had significant effects on brand recognition, as suggested in previous research. The effect of emotional experiences on brand recognition was comparatively less prominent. Placement characteristics and emotional experiences also interacted to influence the recognition of placed brands.

This study shows the role of emotional experiences and their interaction with placement characteristics on brand recognition, which has yet to be examined. The conceptual model contributes to the product placement literature by suggesting that both cognitive and emotional processing are important for brand recognition. The findings provide useful insights for marketers in designing effective product placement strategies.

Knowledge sharing has entered the stage of knowledge payment with the typical models of paid Q&A, live session, paid subscription, course column and community service. Numerous knowledge suppliers have begun to pour into the knowledge payment market, and users' willingness to pay for premium content has increased. However, the academic research on knowledge payment has just begun.

In this paper, the authors searched several bibliographic databases using keywords such as “knowledge payment”, “paid Q&A”, “pay for answer”, “social Q&A”, “paywall” and “online health consultation” and selected papers from aspects of research scenes, research topics, etc. Finally, a total of 116 articles were identified for combing studies.

This study found that in the early research, scholars paid attention to the definition of knowledge payment concept and the discrimination of typical models. With the continuous enrichment of research literature, the research direction has gradually been refined into three main branches from the perspective of research objects, i.e. knowledge provider, knowledge demander and knowledge payment platform.

This paper focuses on discussing and sorting out the key research issues from these three research genres. Finally, the authors found out conflicting and contradictory research results and research gaps in the existing research and then put forward the urgent research topics.

The study aims to compare tribological properties between laser dimple textured surface and drilled dimple textured surface, and to analyze the influence of dimple hardened edges and ability of trapping wear debris on wear properties of dimple textured surfaces.

Circular textured dimples were produced on AISI 1,045 specimen surfaces using laser surface texturing (LST) and drilled surface texturing (DST) methods. Tribological behaviors of LST, DST and non-textured specimens were studied using ball-on-disc tribo-tester. Metallographic structures, dimples and worn surface morphologies were observed using a three-dimensional digital microscope. Hardnesses of substrate and dimple edges were measured.

There was no obvious difference in wear and friction coefficients between LST and DST specimens. Hardnesses of laser dimple edges were much higher than that of drilled dimple edges and specimen substrate. The hardened materials of laser dimple edge included recast zone and heat affect zone. Laser dimple was cone-shaped and drilled dimple was cylinder-shaped. Drilled dimple had a better ability of trapping wear debris than laser dimple. Non-uniform wear phenomenon occurred on worn surfaces of LST dimple specimens.

The ability of textured dimples to trap wear debris is affected by single dimple volume. Hardened edges of dimples cause non-uniform wear on worn surfaces of LST specimens.

This paper aims to identify the direct impact of fund style drift on the risk of stock price collapse and the intermediary mechanism of financial risk, so as to better protect the interests of minority investors.

This paper takes all the non-financial companies on the Chinese Growth Enterprise Market from 2011 to 2020 as study object and selects securities investment funds of their top ten circulation stocks to study the relationship between fund style drift and stock price crash risk.

Fund style drift is likely to add stock price crash risk. Financial risk is positively correlated with stock price crash risk. Fund style drift affects stock price crash risk via the mediating effect of financial risk, and fund style drift and financial risk have a marked impact on the stock price crash risk of non-state enterprises, yet a non-significant impact on that of state-owned enterprises.

This paper links fund style drift with stock price crash risk in an exploratory manner and enriches the study perspectives of relationship between institutional investors’ behaviors and stock price crash risk, thus enjoying certain academic value. On the one hand, it furnishes a new approach to the academic frontier issue concerning financial risk and stock price crash risk, and proves that financial risk is positively correlated with stock price crash risk. On the other hand, it regards financial risk as a mediating variable of fund style drift for stock price crash risk and further explores different influencing mechanism of institutional investors’ behaviors.

The purpose of this paper is to review systematically the research of grey relation analysis (GRA) models.

Three different approaches, the springboard to build a GRA model, the angle of view in modelling, and the dimension of objects, are analysed, respectively.

The GRA models developed from the models based on relation coefficients of each point in the sequences in early days to the generalized GRA models based on integral or overall perspective. It evolved from the GRA models which measure similarity based on nearness, into the models which consider similarity and nearness, respectively. The objects of the research advanced from the analysis of relationship among curves to that among curved surfaces, and further to the analysis of relationship in three‐dimensional space and even the relationship among super surfaces in n‐dimensional space.

The further research on GRA models is proposed. One is about the property of GRA model. An in‐depth knowledge about the properties of GRA model will help people to understand its function, applicable area and requirements for modelling. The other one is about the extension of research object system. The object to be analysed should be extended from the common sequence of real numbers to grey numbers, vectors, matrices, and even multi‐dimensional matrices, etc.

This paper aims to decode how service descriptions contribute to consumer satisfaction in the peer-to-peer service context and how consumer clout interferes with such influence. Based on the expectation–confirmation theory, the authors hypothesise that lowered expectations induced by modest service descriptions strengthen the performance-satisfaction link. In addition, the authors posit that consumer clout influences the moderation effect of service descriptions.

The paper is an empirical study using data of Airbnb, a representative peer-to-peer service platform. The data includes all listings in San Francisco, where Airbnb is headquartered. A total of 5,567 listing descriptions with 241,791 review comments were analysed after removing non-English texts. The host descriptions and guest reviews are analysed with the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count and Google Cloud. The Tobit and ordered logistic models were used for hypothesis testing.

Guests are more likely to give higher ratings when they feel positive about the accommodation services. Such effect is stronger for lower guest expectations induced by modest host descriptions, as lower expectations are more likely to generate positive surprise disconfirmation. The previous relationship is moderated by guest clout, as guests high in clout pay less attention to host descriptions and are less likely to be surprised.

The paper investigates the joint influence of service descriptions and consumer reviews on peer-to-peer service satisfaction. The paper conducted entity-level sentiment analysis to examine opinions expressed towards specific types of entities. The paper also explored how consumer clout moderates the relationship, a boundary condition that previous studies have not explored.

Construction enterprises are achieving the goal of production safety by increasingly focusing on the critical factor of “human” and the impact of individual characteristics on safety performance. Emotional intelligence is categorized into three models: skill-based, trait-based and emotional learning systems. However, the mechanism of action and the internal relationship between emotional intelligence and safety performance must be further studied. This study intends to examine the internal mechanism of emotional intelligence on safety performance in construction projects, which would contribute to the safety management of construction enterprises.

A structural equation model exploring the relationship between emotional intelligence and safety performance is developed, with political skill introduced as an independent dimension, situational awareness presented as a mediator, and management safety commitment introduced as a moderator. Data were collected by a random questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 26.0. The structural equation model tested the mediation hypothesis, and the PROCESS macro program tested the moderated mediation hypothesis.

The results showed that construction workers' emotional intelligence directly correlates with safety performance, and situational awareness plays a mediating role in the relationship between emotional intelligence and the safety performance of construction workers. Management safety commitment weakens the positive predictive relationships between emotional intelligence and situational awareness and between emotional intelligence and safety performance.

This research reveals a possible impact of emotional intelligence on safety performance. Adding political skills to the skill-based model of emotional intelligence received a test pass. Political skill measures the sincere and cooperative skills of construction workers. Using people as a critical element plays a role in the benign mechanism of “Emotional Intelligence – Situational Awareness – Safety Performance.” Improving emotional intelligence skills through training, enhancing situational awareness, understanding, anticipation and coordination and activating management environment factors can improve safety performance. Construction enterprises should evaluate and train workers' emotional intelligence to improve workers' situational awareness and safety performance.