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1 – 10 of 629Abstract
Purpose
Livelihood recovery is a top priority to sustain resettled communities. The purpose of this paper is to assess livelihood vulnerability of those displaced and resettled in the aftermath of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, China, based on a newly constructed locational adjustable framework.
Design/methodology/approach
The study takes two resettlement villages in Sichuan Province as case study areas. Face-to-face surveys using a structured questionnaire and semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted to collect primary data in 2012-2013.
Findings
The findings show that distant resettlement of people post the Wenchuan earthquake has resulted in an increased livelihood vulnerability within resettlers and that they face more hazards post-resettlement when compared to host residents in the resettlement areas.
Research limitations/implications
The indicators considered for the livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) are only a subset that represents typical factors applicable in the context of rural settings of China. The LVI may vary if more indicators are incorporated or coefficients obtained using different methods.
Social implications
Highlights should be placed on livelihood assets and hazards to livelihood of the displaced people. During the transition period there is a pressing need for greater efforts to enhance migrants’ employment skills and assist them to restore viable livelihood activities.
Originality/value
This paper constructs a locational adjustable framework for analyzing and assessing livelihood vulnerability of disaster-induced resettlers from three aspects: livelihood hazards, livelihood assets and coping strategies.
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Xiaofei Tang, Yong (Eddie) Luo, Pan Zhou and Ben Lowe
This paper aims to examine different types of sharing platforms based on risk perceptions of product/service providers and users, and to illustrate appropriate platform regulation…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine different types of sharing platforms based on risk perceptions of product/service providers and users, and to illustrate appropriate platform regulation preferences.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was used (N = 540) to collect data on platform participants’ risk perceptions and regulation preferences in the Chinese (N = 263) and the US markets (N = 277). Cluster analysis and multiple correspondence analysis were used to categorise platforms and match their regulation preferences with the risk characteristics.
Findings
The results show that i) four types of sharing platforms are categorised in terms of the risk perceived by the supply and demand side, and ii) four types of regulation preferences are clustered, drawing on the power and trust elements proposed from the slippery slope framework. Furthermore, coercive power regulation is favoured by participants of platforms with high supply risk and low demand risk, legitimate power regulation is preferred by actors of platforms with low supply risk and high demand risk, reason-based trust regulation is preferred by actors of platforms with high supply and demand risk, and implicit trust regulation is favoured by participants of platforms with low supply and demand risk.
Research limitations/implications
This paper develops an empirical typology of platforms based on risk perceptions of providers and users, and advances our understanding about lateral exchange markets from a consumer perspective.
Practical implications
This paper provides implications for platforms to regulate transactions through two mechanisms – the power of platforms and trust in platform participants.
Originality/value
Regulating by power ensures transaction security while regulating by trust enhances transaction efficiency, so it is important to configure the power and trust elements in platform regulation in an appropriate manner. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first attempts at addressing platform regulation and shows how consumers’ risk perception of platforms can lead to important implications for theory and practice in marketing and better regulation of platform transactions.
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Wei-Tek Tsai, Yong Luo, Enyan Deng, Jing Zhao, Xiaoqiang Ding, Jie Li and Bo Yuan
This paper aims to apply blockchains (BCs) for trade clearing and settlement in a realistic clearinghouse. The purpose is to demonstrate the feasibility and scalability of this…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to apply blockchains (BCs) for trade clearing and settlement in a realistic clearinghouse. The purpose is to demonstrate the feasibility and scalability of this approach.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses account BCs and trading BCs as building blocks for trade clearing and settlement. Careful design is made to ensure that this approach is feasible and scalable.
Findings
A design has been proposed that can process hundreds of thousands of trades for a clearinghouse and it addresses performance, privacy and scalability of realistic trade clearing and settlement. The design has been implemented and experimented in a clearinghouse for over two months and processes over 3B real transactions from an exchange. The first month was to experiment with the system with historical data, the second month was to experiment with real-time data during market trading hours. The system performed as designed and intended.
Research limitations/implications
This is the first large research paper that applied BCs for clearing in the world. The authors applied the system to a clearinghouse and processed over 3 billion transactions, equivalent to 13 years of London Stock Exchange transaction volume, demonstrating that BCs can handle a large number of transactions.
Practical implications
The design can be duplicated to many clearinghouses in the world, and this also paves the way BCs can be used in large financial institutions.
Social implications
An implication is that other trading firms, clearinghouses and banks can apply the same technology for trade clearing, ushering the way BCs can be used in institutions. As clearing is a core function in business transactions, this has significant implications. The design can be discussed and improved in various communities.
Originality/value
As this is the first application of BCs to large clearinghouses that uses unique BC designs. This has significant value. Many studies have been performed but few have been reported in the scientific community. The system has been implemented, experimented and demonstrated in public for months.
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Chengyuan Wang, Biao Luo, Yong Liu and Zhengyun Wei
The paper aims to study the relationship between executives’ perceptions of environmental threats and innovation strategies and investigate the moderating effect of contextual…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to study the relationship between executives’ perceptions of environmental threats and innovation strategies and investigate the moderating effect of contextual factor (i.e. organizational slack) on such relations. It proposes a dualistic relationship between executives’ perceptions of environmental threats and innovation strategies, in which different perceptions of environmental threats will lead to corresponding innovation strategies, and dyadic organizational slack can promote such processes.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a survey with 163 valid questionnaires, which were all completed by executives. Hierarchical ordinary least-squares regression analysis is used to test the hypotheses proposed in this paper.
Findings
The paper provides empirical insights about that executives tend to choose exploratory innovation when they perceive environmental changes as likely loss threats, yet adopt exploitative innovation when perceiving control-reducing threats. Furthermore, unabsorbed slack (e.g. financial redundancy) positively moderates both relationships, while absorbed slack (e.g. operational redundancy) merely positively influences the relationship between the perception of control-reducing threats and exploitative innovation.
Originality/value
The paper bridges the gap between organizational innovation and cognitive theory by proposing a dualistic relationship between executives’ perceptions of environmental threats and innovation strategies. The paper further enriches innovation studies by jointly considering both subjective and objective influence factors of innovation and argues that organizational slack can moderate such dualistic relationship.
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Yong Luo, Jie Xiong, Lie Gang Dong and Yong Tang
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the statistical correlation properties of the Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (SHIBOR) interbank lending market.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the statistical correlation properties of the Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (SHIBOR) interbank lending market.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors apply methods of correlation analysis, random matrix theory (RMT) and minimum spanning tree (MST) to investigate the correlation properties of Chinese interbank lending market and analyze how the SHIBOR panel banks behave in different market periods.
Findings
First, the largest eigenvalue λ 1 is the index to describe the market mode of the whole market when all banks behavior collectively and λ 1/N is a good estimator of the average correlation <C> of the correlation matrix. Second, notably, the authors find the “market mode” is weakened in two crises periods of 2008 stock market crash and 2009 Global Financial Crisis. This is significantly different from other market where the “market mode” is normally strengthened in crises periods. Third, the authors subtract the contribution of λ 1, the second and third eigenvalue, λ 2 and λ 3, will fall outside of the predicted interval. And both λ 2 and λ 3 are getting times larger in the crises periods than in “Non-Crisis” period. Fourth, and in the MST analysis, the authors find again that the average distances of the MST are the times larger in crises periods than in “Non-Crisis” period and the second largest eigenvalue is a good estimator of the average distance of the MST.
Originality/value
According to the best knowledge, this paper is the first work on the study of the statistical properties of an interbank lending market using quotation level data of panel banks, which allows us to analyze the properties of the interest rate formation and how all panel banks behavior in different periods. This work is also the first study on the SHIBOR market using econophysics methods of correlation analysis, RMT and MST.
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Atul Varshney, Vipul Sharma, T. Mary Neebha and N. Prasanthi Kumari
This paper aims to present a low-cost, edge-fed, windmill-shaped, notch-band eliminator, circular monopole antenna which is practically loaded with a complementary split ring…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present a low-cost, edge-fed, windmill-shaped, notch-band eliminator, circular monopole antenna which is practically loaded with a complementary split ring resonator (CSRR) in the middle of the radiating conductor and also uses a partial ground to obtain wide-band performance.
Design/methodology/approach
To compensate for the reduced value of gain and reflection coefficient because of the full (complete) ground plane at the bottom of the substrate, the antenna is further loaded with a partial ground and a CSRR. The reduction in the length of ground near the feed line improves the impedance bandwidth, and introduced CSRR results in improved gain with an additional resonance spike. This results in a peak gain 3.895dBi at the designed frequency 2.45 GHz. The extending of three arms in the circular patch not only led to an increase of peak gain by 4.044dBi but also eliminated the notch band and improved the fractional bandwidth 1.65–2.92 GHz.
Findings
The work reports a –10dB bandwidth from 1.63 GHz to 2.91 GHz, which covers traditional coverage applications and new specific uses applications such as narrow LTE bands for future internet of things (NB-IoT) machine-to-machine communications 1.8/1.9/2.1/2.3/2.5/2.6 GHz, industry, automation and business-critical cases (2.1/2.3/2.6 GHz), industrial, society and medical applications such as Wi-MAX (3.5 GHz), Wi-Fi3 (2.45 GHz), GSM (1.9 GHz), public safety band, Bluetooth (2.40–2.485 GHz), Zigbee (2.40–2.48Ghz), industrial scientific medical (ISM) band (2.4–2.5 GHz), WCDMA (1.9, 2.1 GHz), 3 G (2.1 GHz), 4 G LTE (2.1–2.5 GHz) and other personal communication services applications. The estimated RLC electrical equivalent circuit is also presented at the end.
Practical implications
Because of full coverage of Bluetooth, Zigbee, WiFi3 and ISM band, the proposed fabricated antenna is suitable for low power, low data rate and wireless/wired short-range IoT-enabled medical applications.
Originality/value
The antenna is fabricated on a piece (66.4 mm × 66.4 mm × 1.6 mm) of low-cost low profile FR-4 epoxy substrate (0.54
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Cuiping Ma, Hefu Liu, Jibao Gu and Junsheng Dou
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the cultural cognition of Chinese Zhong-yong thinking, which is deeply rooted in Chinese Confucius culture, and to examine how…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the cultural cognition of Chinese Zhong-yong thinking, which is deeply rooted in Chinese Confucius culture, and to examine how entrepreneurs’ Zhong-yong thinking is related to new venture performance through guanxi network, and also examine how environmental turbulence affects the influencing mechanism.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper follows an empirical design. Data are collected from a survey administered to entrepreneurs in new ventures of China. Regression analysis is used to test the hypothesis.
Findings
Results show that entrepreneurs’ Zhong-yong thinking is positively related to guanxi and new venture performance, and guanxi mediates the relationship between entrepreneurs’ Zhong-yong thinking and new venture performance. In addition, environmental turbulence moderates the relationship between entrepreneurs’ Zhong-yong thinking and guanxi such that the relationship is stronger under higher technological turbulence or lower market turbulence.
Research limitations/implications
This research uses cross-sectional data, so causal conclusions cannot be made. In addition, more moderators should be considered.
Practical implications
The present study enriches the understanding of how entrepreneurs’ Zhong-yong thinking affects new ventures, which helps entrepreneur understand how to strategize according to external environment and develop what kind of cognitive style to deal with complex situation of their own venture.
Originality/value
This study is a pioneer in exploring non-Western cognitive style–Zhong-yong thinking in entrepreneurial context. It not only enriches the understanding of how Chinese wisdom affects organizational strategy and organizational performance but also advances the cognition research in the field of entrepreneurship.
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This study investigates the direct influence of ambidextrous leadership on employees’ innovation behaviour, the mediating role of innovative self-efficacy and harmonious work…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the direct influence of ambidextrous leadership on employees’ innovation behaviour, the mediating role of innovative self-efficacy and harmonious work passion, and the moderating role of Zhong-Yong thinking.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a series of questionnaire surveys to collect data in three time periods and from multiple sources; 332 supervisor–subordinate matched samples were obtained. The hypothesised relationships were tested using structural equation modelling and ProClin.
Findings
Ambidextrous leadership is positively associated with employees’ innovation behaviour, while innovative self-efficacy and harmonious work passion play mediating roles. The analysis further confirms that innovative self-efficacy and harmonious work passion play a chained double-mediating role between ambidextrous leadership and employees’ innovation behaviour, while Zhong-Yong thinking plays moderating roles between ambidextrous leadership and innovative self-efficacy and between ambidextrous leadership and harmonious work passion.
Originality/value
This study demonstrates the influence of ambidextrous leadership on employees’ innovation behaviour, specifically the role of ambidextrous leadership, and extends the relationship’s theoretical foundation. It is also expected to provide inspiration and serve as a reference for local Chinese management.
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Xin Li, Torben Juul Andersen and Carina Antonia Hallin
The purpose of this paper is to propose an alternative perspective on Zhong-Yong that is different from the notion of “Yin-Yang balancing” and apply it to understand the issue of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose an alternative perspective on Zhong-Yong that is different from the notion of “Yin-Yang balancing” and apply it to understand the issue of balancing the top-down and bottom-up processes in strategy making.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors adopt a “West meets East” mindset and approach to develop an alternative perspective on Zhong-Yong, and then apply this perspective to understand the issue of balancing the top-down and bottom-up processes in strategy making. There are three steps in the process of developing the alternative perspective. First, the authors argue that the essence of “Yin-Yang balancing” is a ratio-based solution to paradoxical balancing, which is in fact equivalent to Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean and compatible with some western management scholars’ approaches to solving paradox. Second, the authors identify a different generic solution to paradoxical balancing implicit in the western management literature. Third, the authors find in the original text of Zhong-Yong equivalent ideas to the identified different generic solution and then propose an alternative perspective on Zhong-Yong that is fundamentally different from the notion of “Yin-Yang balancing.”
Findings
Applied to the issue of balancing the top-down and bottom-up processes in strategy making, the new perspective on Zhong-Yong provides us with the following prescriptive insights from the life-wisdom of eastern philosophy: first, top management (e.g. Shun as the sage-king) must listen to various views and opinions also from employees and low-level managers at the bottom of the organization to be better informed about complex issues. Second, top management must analyze the diverse elements of the various views and opinions they collect and synthesize by taking the good from the bad to find smarter solutions and make decisions with better outcomes. Third, abiding by a set of (more or less) cohesive values help top managers be open and receptive to information and insights from low-level organizational members and enhancing unbiased information.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is mainly a theoretical perspective. Empirical work is needed to test the prescriptions offered in this paper.
Practical implications
Practitioners may learn new perspectives from ancient Chinese philosophies on how to balance.
Originality/value
This paper applies a new perspective on Zhong-Yong to an important paradox in strategic management.
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Thomas Grigalunas, Simona Trandafrr, Meifeng Luo, James Opaluch and Suk-Jae Kwon
This paper analyzes two external costs often associated with port development, cost to fisheries from marine dredge disposal and damages from air pollution, using estimates of…
Abstract
This paper analyzes two external costs often associated with port development, cost to fisheries from marine dredge disposal and damages from air pollution, using estimates of development and operation for a proposed (but since cancelled) container port as a case study. For dredge disposal, a bio-economic model was used to assess short- and long-term and indirect (joodweb) damages to fisheries from marine disposal of clean sediments. In the case of air pollution, estimates of annual activity levels and emission coefficients are used to estimate incremental annual emissions of three key pollutants (NOx, HC and CO) for trucks, trains, yard vehicles, and vessels. These estimates allow for phasing in of strict new air pollution regulations. For both external costs, sensitivity analyses are used to reflect uncertainty. Estimates of shadow values in year 2002 dollars amount from $0.094 per cubic yard to $0.169 per cubic yard of clean dredged material for the selected disposal site and from $0.0584 per mile (jor current control standards) to $ 0. 0023 per mile (after phasing in of new regulations) for air pollution from heavy trucks.
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