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During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, museums, as public gathering places for citizens, have encountered unprecedented difficulties due to limitations to operate as usual for their traditional exhibitions and curations. Thus, museums made corresponding emergency attempts to accelerate digital resource and service platform constructions. Such difficulties aroused many potential problems with the applicability of electronic resources and the mismatch between user expectations and museum services. This study investigates the challenges faced by Hong Kong museums under COVID-19, emergency responses and deliberate practices of Hong Kong museums from the perspective of both museum staff and visitors, and COVID-19's influence on the roles and functions of Hong Kong museums.

Qualitative interviews with museum staff and visitors were conducted to collect opinions and experiences in the construction and maintenance of museums during the pandemic. Further thematic analyses of museum websites, evaluations, and suggestions were formulated guided by the PEST (Political, Economic, Social, Technological) and AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) models.

Findings revealed many online interactions and offline renovations, but the perceptions of visitors and staff differed considerably. While online resources and virtual museums were expanded and well received, long-term prohibitions and repressions drove physical visit desire. Participants emphasized finding a balance between user expectations and realistic practices.

Scant studies focus on the impact of COVID-19 on the cultural industry, especially in East Asia. This study also highlights new practices of digitalization and the challenges of functional transformation. The authors' findings and suggestions provide hints to optimize the curation of information resources and improve museum service quality in the new digital era. This study also serves as a reliable and meaningful record of COVID-19 impacts on Hong Kong museums.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the optimal competition or cooperation decision between technology service platforms and governments in the context of fierce competition within urban agglomerations.

Based on the cooperation and competition game model, this study builds a two-level model for government and technology service platforms considering three cases: perfect competition, platform cooperation and government-led cooperation.

By analyzing the optimal strategies of the government and a platform in three cases, the research shows that choosing appropriate cooperation in a competitive situation is beneficial to both the government and the platform. Government-led cooperation is conducive to increasing social welfare. From the perspective of the platforms, if they actively seek cooperation, they can obtain higher subsidies and profits. The more intense the competition is, the higher the profits and social welfare generated from the platforms' active cooperation.

The contribution of this study relates to the development of technology service platforms in urban agglomerations. As local governments and platforms continuously undertake decision-making processes, this study constructs quantitative models to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of competition and cooperation. It is worth noting that relying on government subsidies to maintain the sustainable development of technology service platforms is not a long-term solution. Government subsidies play a vital role in the initial development of technology service platforms. The analysis results are in line with Guo et al. (2016), Jung and Feng (2020) and Li (2021) conclusions. Furthermore, long-term government subsidies will make platforms dependent on these subsidies. These are the contributions to the scientific literature.

Instead of focusing on vertical relationships, this study emphasizes the horizontal cooperation and competition relationship between platforms and local governments in an urban agglomeration. Thus, the vertical effects of government subsidies on platforms can be investigated. Another innovation is the social welfare policy goal, which is an important index for the development of urban agglomerations.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review and critique of what we already know about pay systems in Chinese state‐owned enterprises, to identify the gaps in the literature and to stimulate more research in this area.

The paper first describes the policy issues at the macro‐level (government policies) in order to put micro‐level pay practices in a pertinent context. Then the paper provides a detailed review and critique on current empirical studies on pay practices in Chinese enterprises, their antecedents and consequences. Finally, the paper identifies potential research questions and provides some directions for future research.

The paper concludes from the extensive review of the current literature that the following research areas merit attention: Why do some firms pay their employees more than other firms? Why do we observe different types of internal pay structures among firms? What are the consequences of these different structures? Why is the link between pay and performance weak in some firms but strong in others? Under what conditions pay‐for‐performance enhances firm performance?

The paper is one of the most comprehensive reviews of the literature on compensation practices of Chinese companies.

The purpose of this paper is to track the changes of leadership attributes during the process of social development from 1998 to 2008 in China, and then to explore whether the significant events have potential impacts on the changes of leadership attributes during this time.

The authors conducted two studies through qualitative approach, based on data collected from Chinese official newspapers (People's Daily and Guangming Daily) covering 216 stories (90 stories in Study 1 and 126 stories in Study 2). The first study focuses on comparing the leadership attributes in 2008 with those in 1998 and 1988 presented in previous research to find out the changes. In the second study, the most significant events are selected during the period of 1998‐2008 and their effects on the changes of leadership attributes are examined.

The findings show that leadership attributes changed during the ten years and some new attributes are advocated in China. Furthermore, the changes of leadership attributes, especially for non‐business leaders, relate to the occurrence of significant events and reflect the changes of government policies.

Although some literature has explored leadership attributes in China, this study contributes to the extant research in two ways. First, it promotes the use of existing documents as data sources of longitudinal study to track the changes of leadership attributes. Second, it advances the line of inquiry of leadership attributes in China by concentrating on the factors driving those changes.

Digital healthcare manages to grab considerable attention from people and practitioners to avoid severity and provide quick access to healthcare. Entrepreneurs also adopt the digital healthcare segment as an opportunity; nevertheless, their intentions to participate and encourage innovation in this growing sector are unexplored. Drawing upon the social capital theory and health belief model, the study examines the factors that drive entrepreneurship. A novel model is proposed to comprehend entrepreneurial intentions and behavior entrenched in social capital and other encouraging and dissuading perceptive elements with the moderation of trust in digitalization and entrepreneurial efficacy.

The cross-sectional method is used to collect data through a questionnaire from experienced respondents in China. The valid data comprises 280 respondents, analyzed by partial least square structural equation modeling.

Social capital significantly influences monetary attitude, and perceived risk and holds an inconsequential association with perceived usefulness, whereas monetary attitude and perceived usefulness meaningfully explain entrepreneurial activities. Perceived risk has a trivial impact on entrepreneurial intention. Entrepreneurial efficacy and trust in digitalization significantly explain entrepreneurial behavior and moderate the positive relationship between intention and behavior.

The present research proposes a novel research model in the context of entrepreneurship rooted in a digitalized world and offering new correlates. It provides valuable insights by exploring entrepreneurial motivation and deterring factors to get involved in startup activities entrenched in social capital, providing guidelines for policymakers and practitioners to promote entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of wholesale price discrimination by a manufacturer in a retailer–e-tailer dual-channel supply chain for different product categories based on their online channel preference.

This paper considers a dual-channel supply chain comprising of a retailer and an e-tailer engaged in competition. Game-theoretic models are developed to model the competition between the retailer and e-tailer and to derive their optimal price, optimal order quantity and optimal profit under (1) equal wholesale price strategy and (2) discriminatory wholesale price strategy. Further, a numerical example was employed to quantify the results and to capture the variation with respect to online channel preference of the product.

It is beneficial for the manufacturer to adopt a discriminatory wholesale price strategy for products having both high online channel preference and low online channel preference. However, equal wholesale price strategy is beneficial for the e-tailer and the retailer in the case of products having high online channel preference and in the case of products having low online channel preference, respectively.

The study helps the manufacturers to maximize their profit by adopting the right wholesale price strategy considering the online channel preference of the product when the manufacturers are supplying to heterogeneous retailers.

There is scant literature on the wholesale price strategy of the manufacturer considering the heterogeneous downstream retailers. This paper contributes the literature by bridging this gap. In addition, the study establishes a link between the wholesale price strategy and online channel preference of the product.

The bridge expansion joint (BEJ) is a key device for accommodating spatial displacement at the beam end, and for providing vertical support for running trains passing over the gap between the main bridge and the approach bridge. For long-span railway bridges, it must also be coordinated with rail expansion joint (REJ), which is necessary to accommodate the expansion and contraction of, and reducing longitudinal stress in, the rails. The main aim of this study is to present analysis of recent developments in the research and application of BEJs in high-speed railway (HSR) long-span bridges in China, and to propose a performance-based integral design method for BEJs used with REJs, from both theoretical and engineering perspectives.

The study first presents a summary on the application and maintenance of BEJs in HSR long-span bridges in China representing an overview of their state of development. Results of a survey of typical BEJ faults were analyzed, and field testing was conducted on a railway cable-stayed bridge in order to obtain information on the major mechanical characteristics of its BEJ under train load. Based on the above, a performance-based integral design method for BEJs with maximum expansion range 1600 mm (±800 mm), was proposed, covering all stages from overall conceptual design to consideration of detailed structural design issues. The performance of the novel BEJ design thus derived was then verified via theoretical analysis under different scenarios, full-scale model testing, and field testing and commissioning.

Two major types of BEJs, deck-type and through-type, are used in HSR long-span bridges in China. Typical BEJ faults were found to mainly include skewness of steel sleepers at the bridge gap, abnormally large longitudinal frictional resistance, and flexural deformation of the scissor mechanisms. These faults influence BEJ functioning, and thus adversely affect track quality and train running performance at the beam end. Due to their simple and integral structure, deck-type BEJs with expansion range 1200 mm (± 600 mm) or less have been favored as a solution offering improved operational conditions, and have emerged as a standard design. However, when the expansion range exceeds the above-mentioned value, special design work becomes necessary. Therefore, based on engineering practice, a performance-based integral design method for BEJs used with REJs was proposed, taking into account four major categories of performance requirements, i.e., mechanical characteristics, train running quality, durability and insulation performance. Overall BEJ design must mainly consider component strength and the overall stiffness of BEJ; the latter factor in particular has a decisive influence on train running performance at the beam end. Detailed BEJ structural design must stress minimization of the frictional resistance of its sliding surface. The static and dynamic performance of the newly-designed BEJ with expansion range 1600 mm have been confirmed to be satisfactory, via numerical simulation, full-scale model testing, and field testing and commissioning.

This research provides a broad overview of the status of BEJs with large expansion range in HSR long-span bridges in China, along with novel insights into their design.

In the era of the digital economy, higher demands are placed on versatile talents, and the cultivation of students with innovative and entrepreneurial abilities has become an important issue for the further development of higher education, thus leading to extensive and in-depth research by many scholars. The study summarizes the characteristics and patterns of dual-innovation education at different stages of development, hoping to provide a systematic model for the development of dual-innovation education in China and make up for the shortcomings.

This paper uses Citespace software to visualize and analyze the relevant literature in CNKI and Web of Science databases from a bibliometric perspective, focusing on quantitative analysis in terms of article trends, topic clustering, keyword co-linear networks and topic time evolution, etc., to summarize and sort out the development of innovation and entrepreneurship education research at home and abroad.

The study found that the external characteristics of the literature published in the field of bi-innovation education in China and abroad are slightly different, mainly in that foreign publishers are more closely connected and have formed a more stable ecosystem. In terms of research hotspots, China is still in a critical period of reforming its curriculum and teaching model, and research on the integration of specialization and creative education is in full swing, while foreign countries focus more on the cultivation of students' entrepreneurial awareness and the enhancement of individual effectiveness. In terms of cutting-edge analysis, the main research directions in China are “creative education”, “new engineering”, “integration of industry and education” and “rural revitalization”.

Innovation and entrepreneurship education in China is still in its infancy, and most of the studies lack an overall overview and comparison of foreign studies. Based on the econometric analysis of domestic and foreign literature, this paper proposes a path for domestic innovation and entrepreneurship education reform that can make China's future education reform more effective.

The Chinese society has embraced rapid social reforms since the late twentieth century, including educational and healthcare systems. The Chinese Central Government launched an ambitious health reform program in 2009 to improve service quality and provide affordable health services, regardless of individual socio-economic status. Currently, the Chinese social health insurance includes Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance, Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance, and New Cooperative Medical Insurance for rural residents. The purpose of this paper is to measure the association between individual education level and China’s social health insurance scheme following the reform.

Using the latest (2011) China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) data and multivariable logistic regression models with cross-sectional design (n=11,960), the odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) are reported.

The authors found that education is associated with all social health insurance schemes in China after the reform (p<0.001). Residents with higher educational attainments, such as technical school (OR: 6.64, 95% CI: 5.44–8.13) or university and above (OR: 9.86, 95% CI: 8.14–11.96), are associated with UEBMI, compared with lower-educated individuals.

The Chinese Central Government announced a plan to combine all social health insurance schemes by 2020, except UEBMI, a plan with the most comprehensive financial package. Further research is needed to investigate potential disparities after unification. Policy makers should continue to evaluate China’s universal health coverage and social disparity.

This study is the first to investigate the association between residents’ educational attainment and three social health insurance schemes following the 2009 health reform. The authors suggest that educational attainment is still associated with each social health insurance coverage after the ambitious health reform.

The purpose of the current research is to examine the relationship between social capital (SC) and financial performance (FP) in industrial enterprises in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Sulaimani City (KRG), as well as the role of the quality of accounting information (QAI) as a mediator between SC and FP.

In this study, SmartPLS is used to analyze the questionnaire that was distributed to 10 industrial firms engaged in the iron industry in 2021. The researcher used stratified random sampling to collect sample data from 252 full-time employees of a manufacturing companies in Kurdistan Region/ Iraq.

The findings of this research show that accounting measurement and disclosure of social capital (AMDSC) plays an important role in improving FP and that QAI mediates between AMDSC and FP in industrial companies in the KRG and Sulaimani city. This research aims to examine the impact of AMDSC on FP through mediating the QAI between AMDSC and FP at industrial companies in KRG/Sulaimani City. The results showed that AMDSC had a positive and significant impact on the company’s FP. The overall results of this study show that AMDSCs are positively and significantly correlated with financial performance, and QAI mediates between AMDSC and FP. This shows that SC should be considered in the companies’ plan to obtain additional funding in this sector.

This study is exclusive to KRG/Sulaimani City’s iron industry. Other industries including sugar, cement, clothing, vehicles and medications could be the subject of future investigations.

The research provides insightful practical implications for management. First, the outcomes recommend that business owners and managers find a satisfactory level of SC when it significantly and positively affects financial performance. Second, the findings of this study will assist KRG manufacturing companies in making rational decisions to maximize profits while minimizing transaction costs such as information and research costs, increasing trust or reducing administrative burdens. This will eventually lead to the growth of industrial companies’ wealth in KRG/Sulaimani City. Managers should focus on social relationships between employees and management to maximize trust and reduce transaction costs, as they have future earnings.

Due to the lack of prior attention given to social capital in KRG, this research focuses on enhancing financial performance in industrial enterprises in KRG and Sulaimani City.