Xiaopeng Zou, Zihan Ye and Qiuzi Zhang
The purpose of this paper is to present a clear path to securitize the longevity risk with two distinct swaps in order to inspire a new Chinese life market.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a clear path to securitize the longevity risk with two distinct swaps in order to inspire a new Chinese life market.
Design/methodology/approach
Studies on longevity risk securitization consist of three aspects, respectively, instrument design, pricing methodology and mortality projection. The swaps designed are referenced, respectively, to vanilla and complex survivor swaps (Dowd et al., 2006; Lin and Cox, 2005). Methods applied are RHH model and Gompertz law for mortality projection, as well as two-factor Wang transformation for pricing.
Findings
This paper figures out the market price of risk in Chinese annuity market, checks for the sensitivity of the price to parameters and tests the hedging effects by Monte Carlo simulation.
Originality/value
Based on the theoretical and numerical results, this paper suggests an effective way to possibly witness the birth of New Life Market in China.
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Wanglin Ma, Chunbo Ma, Ye Su and Zihan Nie
The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that influence Chinese apple farmers’ willingness to adopt organic farming, paying a special attention to the role of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that influence Chinese apple farmers’ willingness to adopt organic farming, paying a special attention to the role of information acquisition.
Design/methodology/approach
Given that the selection bias may occur when farmers themselves decide whether or not to acquire the information to understand the essence of organic farming, this study employs a recursive bivariate probit model to address the issue of the selection bias.
Findings
The empirical results indicate that farmers’ decision to acquire information is positively affected by farmers’ environmental awareness, access to credit and access to information. In particular, information acquisition appears to increase the likelihood of farmers’ willingness to adopt organic farming by 35.9 percentage points on average.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that measures increasing farmers’ information exposure can be promising policy interventions to induce adoption of organic farming.
Originality/value
While considerable evidence indicates that organic farming provides more benefits than conventional production practice, little is known about farmers’ willingness to adopt in China. This paper provides a first attempt by examining the role of information acquisition in determining Chinese apple farmers’ willingness to adopt.
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Xiaoli Li, Zihan Peng and Kun Li
This study aims to explore the mechanism of boundary-spanning search on firm’s innovation performance under environmental dynamics from the perspective of strategic knowledge…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the mechanism of boundary-spanning search on firm’s innovation performance under environmental dynamics from the perspective of strategic knowledge integration.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted among Chinese firm managers and R&D personnel, resulting in the collection of 315 valid samples. Hierarchical regression analysis was mainly adopted to demonstrate the hypothesized relationships, while the Sobel test and bootstrap method were used to further validate the mediating effects.
Findings
The results demonstrate that boundary-spanning search in different dimensions is a critical factor in the improvement of firm innovation performance (FIP). Two types of strategic knowledge integration are the main factors causing FIP and mediate the influence of boundary-spanning search on FIP. Furthermore, environmental dynamics moderate the relationship among boundary-spanning search, strategic knowledge integration and FIP.
Practical implications
Managers need to strengthen the boundary-spanning search for market and technical knowledge, which will promote firm innovative performance. Managers also need to implement strategic knowledge integration, which specifically includes using planned strategic knowledge integration to compensate for knowledge deficiencies, thereby achieving predetermined objectives; and using emergent strategic knowledge integration to update their understanding of internal and external environments, and to reset strategic objectives. In dynamic environments, managers should emphasize strategic knowledge management activities more.
Originality/value
From a strategic management perspective, this study categorizes strategic knowledge integration into planned and emergent forms. By applying the logic of knowledge acquisition, integration and creation, it explores how boundary-spanning search affects FIP through strategic knowledge integration as the intermediary and the boundary conditions of environmental dynamics. This not only provides a deeper understanding of the nature and effects of boundary-spanning research but also enhances the theory of strategic knowledge management.
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Gang Wang, Zihan Wang, Yue Zhang, GuangTao Xu, MingHao Zhao and Yanmin Li
The purpose of this paper is to find a new method to evaluate the hydrogen embrittlement performance of heterogeneous materials and thin film materials.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to find a new method to evaluate the hydrogen embrittlement performance of heterogeneous materials and thin film materials.
Design/methodology/approach
The changes of hydrogen embrittlement properties of steel were studied by electrochemical hydrogen charging test and scratch test. The microstructure and properties of the alloy were analyzed by hardness tester, scanning electron microscope and three-dimensional morphology. The fracture toughness before and after hydrogen charging was calculated based on the scratch method.
Findings
The results showed that the hydrogen-induced hardening phenomenon occurs in the material after hydrogen charging. The scratch depth and width increased after hydrogen charging. The fracture toughness obtained by the scratch method showed that hydrogen reduces the fracture toughness of the material. The comparison error of fracture toughness calculated by indentation method was less than 5%.
Originality/value
The results show that the scratch method can evaluate the hydrogen embrittlement performance of the material. This method provides a possibility to evaluate the hydrogen embrittlement of thin-film and heterogeneous materials.
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Jianyun Hou, Xuexi Huo and Runsheng Yin
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of using computers to obtain information on the farm household’s production and consumption based on a field survey of farm…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of using computers to obtain information on the farm household’s production and consumption based on a field survey of farm households in the northern China.
Design/methodology/approach
The most important methods applied are instrumental variable (IV) method and propensity score matching (PSM) method. Estimators of IV, PSM and nearest neighborhood matching approaches are considered together to check the robustness of empirical results.
Findings
This paper careful impact evaluation results suggest that the use of computer not only improves the size of arable land rented in but also reduces family labor input intensity and the probability of selling agricultural outputs at farm-gate markets. Moreover, it also stimulates transportation, garment, housing and insurance expenditures per capita.
Research limitations/implications
The database of this research comprises cross-section data, which does not support a cross-time comparison.
Practical implications
These results imply that it is vital to expand the coverage of computer use in rural areas. This may suggest that the importance of improving computer access is crucial for stimulating rural consumption increase. Furthermore, the need for the expansion of internet network coverage in western areas is also of importance.
Originality/value
First, the authors directly estimate computer usage impacts on a broader range of production and consumption indicators by including land-relative investments, variable investments, labor input and household’s expenditure and provide rigorous impact evaluations on the impact of access to computer. Second, the authors use IV and PSM methods to correct self-selection bias, going beyond the single equation approach in other studies. This enables us to identify the causal relationship between computer usage and farmer’s production and consumption decisions.
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Yuling Chen, Zihan Yuan and Charles Weizheng Chen
The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of work-to-family conflict (WFC) on unethical pro-family behavior (UPFB) and work engagement (WE) among Chinese female leaders…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of work-to-family conflict (WFC) on unethical pro-family behavior (UPFB) and work engagement (WE) among Chinese female leaders. In addition, this study investigates the mediating role of work-to-family guilt (WFG) and the moderating role of family centrality (FC) in these relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative approach was adopted, involving the collection of data through online questionnaires administered at three time points. These data were analyzed using hierarchical regression and the bootstrapping method to test the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
WFC exhibited a significant positive correlation with UPFB and a negative correlation with WE; WFG played a mediating role in the relationships between WFC and both UPFB and WE; and FC had a significant moderating effect on the relationship between WFC and WE.
Originality/value
This study sheds light on a model of WFC and its related effects, reveals how WFC affects UPFB and WE and uncovers the mediating role of WFG and the moderating role of FC; pays attention to a unique organizational behavior, UPFB, which enriches research on the antecedents influencing such behaviors; and examines Chinese female leaders in organizations, their current experience of WFC and the resulting psychological and behavioral outcomes.
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According to the problem of crude oil price forecasting, the purpose of this paper is to propose a multi-step prediction method based on the empirical mode decomposition, long…
Abstract
Purpose
According to the problem of crude oil price forecasting, the purpose of this paper is to propose a multi-step prediction method based on the empirical mode decomposition, long short-term memory network and GM (1,1) model.
Design/methodology/approach
First, the empirical mode decomposition method is used to decompose the crude oil price series into several components with different frequencies. Then, each subsequence is classified and synthesized based on the specific periodicity and other properties to obtain several components with different significant characteristics. Finally, all components are substituted into a suitable prediction model for fitting. LSTM models with different parameters are constructed for predicting specific components, which approximately and respectively represent short-term market disturbance and long-term influences. Rolling GM (1,1) model is constructed to simulate a series representing the development trend of oil price. Eventually, all results obtained from forecasting models are summarized to evaluate the performance of the model.
Findings
The model is respectively applied to simulate daily, weekly and monthly WTI crude oil price sequences. The results show that the model has high accuracy on the prediction, especially in terms of series representing long-term influences with lower frequency. GM (1,1) model has excellent performance on fitting the trend of crude oil price.
Originality/value
This paper combines GM (1,1) model with LSTM network to forecast WTI crude oil price series. According to the different characteristics of different sequences, suitable forecasting models are constructed to simulate the components.
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Hao Chen, Jianming Jiang, Liang Wang, Zihan Zhang and Jiaying Bao
The purpose of this study is to reveal the mechanism of humble leadership inducing abusive supervision from the low-status compensation perspective, examining the mediation role…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to reveal the mechanism of humble leadership inducing abusive supervision from the low-status compensation perspective, examining the mediation role of leader perceived thread to status. Besides, the moderation effect of regulatory focus on the mediation path is discussed.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducted a three-wave longitudinal survey. The data was collected from 438 leaders and their employees in five Chinese enterprises. This study used Mplus 7.4 and adopted a bootstrapping technique for data analysis.
Findings
Humble leadership has a positive effect on leader perceived threat to status. Leader perceived threat to status plays a mediation role between humble leadership and leader abusive supervision. Leader regulatory focus is the “gate valve” that humble leadership fosters leader abusive supervision. That is, when the leader promotion focus is high, leader perceived threat to status bred by humble leadership is low, resulting in less abusive supervision. When the leader prevention focus is high, humble leadership brings relatively more abusive supervision through perceived threat to status.
Originality/value
This study explores why humble leadership breeds abusive supervision behaviors and reveals the mechanism behind the negative effect of humble leadership based on low-status compensation theory. This study not only promotes the continuous development of the field of humble leadership research through empirical research but also provides guidance for effectively suppressing the negative effects of humble leadership, promoting strengths and avoiding weaknesses and suppressing inappropriate management behaviors in management practice.
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Hao Chen, Jiajia Wang, Jiaying Bao, Zihan Zhang and Jingya Li
Based on the Cognitive Appraisal Theory of Stress, this study aims to reveal the mechanism of peer abusive supervision on bystander proactive behavior through two different paths…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on the Cognitive Appraisal Theory of Stress, this study aims to reveal the mechanism of peer abusive supervision on bystander proactive behavior through two different paths: bystander assertive impression management motivation and bystander defensive impression management motivation. Besides, the moderating effects of bystander uncertainty tolerance on the two paths are also explored.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, 438 employees and their direct leaders from eight Chinese companies were surveyed in a paired survey at three time points, and the empirical data was analyzed using Mplus 7.4 software.
Findings
Peer abusive supervision leads bystanders to develop assertive impression management motivation and, thus, to exhibit more proactive behaviors. At the same time, peer abusive supervision also causes bystanders to develop defensive impression management motivation, which reduces the frequency of performing proactive behaviors. In addition, this study finds that bystander uncertainty tolerance plays a moderating role in influencing bystander assertive impression management motivation and bystander defensive impression management motivation in response to peer abusive supervision.
Originality/value
Starting from the bystander perspective, this study verifies the double-edged sword effect of peer abusive supervision on bystander proactive behavior as well as the mechanism of differentiated effects through cognitive appraisal, which broadens the scope of the research on abusive supervision, and deepens the academic understanding and development of the Cognitive Appraisal Theory of Stress. At the same time, it also provides new ideas for organizations to reduce the negative effects of workplace abusive behavior.
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Yajun Guo, Zhenyang Liu, Yi Ruo Guo, Xuying Kou and Zihan Jin
Public libraries are strong advocates of the development of accessibility for people with disabilities. Understanding the accessibility services needs of visually impaired patrons…
Abstract
Purpose
Public libraries are strong advocates of the development of accessibility for people with disabilities. Understanding the accessibility services needs of visually impaired patrons is highly beneficial for increasing satisfaction with public library services. The purpose of this research is to assess the service capabilities of visually impaired patrons in public libraries and to improve the accessibility of services provided by public libraries for visually impaired patrons.
Design/methodology/approach
This research adopts a mixed methods approach. Qualitative data collection involves interviews and surveys with 34 visually impaired individuals in China, applying grounded theory and expectancy theory. Quantitative analysis is then carried out using the Kano model.
Findings
The research reveals four types of accessibility service needs, with visually impaired patrons prioritizing value-added information services and self-service options. In addition, visually impaired patrons are also highly interested in the integration of assistive and innovative technologies within libraries.
Originality/value
By emphasizing a patron-centered approach, this research provides insights into innovative service approaches in public libraries that address the specific needs of visually impaired patrons and contribute essential strategies for bridging the digital divide.