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Although the impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) on firms' innovation has attracted attention, the existing research findings diverge. The authors believe that failure to consider both innovation input and output is an important reason for the divergence of conclusions in the extant literature when discussing the impact of ESG and firm innovation. Thus, based on signaling theory, this study aims to reconcile these divergent findings by examining the impact of ESG performance on firms' innovation efficiency.

To seek empirical evidence to support the authors’ theoretical view, the authors conduct an empirical test based on the Tobit model using 8 years of data from Chinese listed companies.

Although ESG performance effectively improves firms' innovation efficiency, the institutional-level signaling environment (including state-owned firms and regional market development) weakens the positive effect of ESG performance on firms' innovation efficiency. Further tests suggest that financing constraints partially mediate the relationship between ESG performance and firms' innovation efficiency.

By systematically revealing whether, how and under what circumstances ESG performance improves firms' innovation advantages, this study bridges the gap in the existing literature and highlights important implications to suggest how firms can better capture the value associated with ESG.

The impact of executive characteristics on firm internationalization has already been extensively explored. However, relatively few studies have examined the critical role of chief executive officer (CEO) personality attributes, and especially CEO openness, in firm internationalization. This research aims to deepen the understanding of firm internationalization, by exploring whether and when CEO openness influences firm internationalization.

A sample of private high-tech listed firms in China is used, with data from 2004 to 2020.

Based on upper echelons theory, this study theorizes and finds that CEO openness will positively influence firm internationalization. Further, based on the behavioral theory of the firm, this study finds that the performance aspiration gap weakens the positive effect of CEO openness on firm internationalization, but also finds that the potential slack strengthens this effect.

First, the study reinterprets firm internationalization strategies from the perspective of CEO openness, a personality attribute; CEO openness is an important but so far rarely discussed topic in the field of international business. Second, for the first time, problemistic search and slack search into a research framework are introduced to explore the relationship between CEO characteristics and firm internationalization. This approach can further define the boundary conditions under which CEOs can project their values, preferences and personalities into the process of formulating and implementing a firm's internationalization strategy.

Cybersecurity competitions can effectively develop skills, but engaging a wide learner spectrum is challenging. This study aims to investigate the perceptions of cybersecurity competitions among Reddit users. These users constitute a substantial demographic of young individuals, often participating in communities oriented towards college students or cybersecurity enthusiasts. The authors specifically focus on novice learners who showed an interest in cybersecurity but have not participated in competitions. By understanding their views and concerns, the authors aim to devise strategies to encourage their continuous involvement in cybersecurity learning. The Reddit platform provides unique access to this significant demographic, contributing to enhancing and diversifying the cybersecurity workforce.

The authors propose to mine Reddit posts for information about learners’ attitudes, interests and experiences with cybersecurity competitions. To mine Reddit posts, the authors developed a text mining approach that integrates computational text mining and qualitative content analysis techniques, and the authors discussed the advantages of the integrated approach.

The authors' text mining approach was successful in extracting the major themes from the collected posts. The authors found that motivated learners would want to form a strategic way to facilitate their learning. In addition, hope and fear collide, which exposes the learners’ interests and challenges.

The authors discussed the findings to provide education and training experts with a thorough understanding of novice learners, allowing them to engage them in the cybersecurity industry.

Human-like musculoskeletal robots can fulfill flexible movement and manipulation with the help of multi joints and actuators. However, in general, sophisticated structures, accurate sensors and well-designed control are all necessary for a musculoskeletal robot to achieve high-precision movement. How to realize the reliable and accurate movement of the robot under the condition of limited sensing and control accuracy is still a bottleneck problem. This paper aims to improve the movement performance of musculoskeletal system by bio-inspired method.

Inspired by two kinds of natural constraints, the convergent force field found in neuroscience and attractive region in the environment found in information science, the authors proposed a structure transforming optimization algorithm for constructing constraint force field in musculoskeletal robots. Due to the characteristics of rigid-flexible coupling and variable structures, a constraint force field can be constructed in the task space of the musculoskeletal robot by optimizing the arrangement of muscles.

With the help of the constraint force field, the robot can complete precise and robust movement with constant control signals, which brings in the possibility to reduce the requirement of sensing feedback during the motion control of the robot. Experiments are conducted on a musculoskeletal model to evaluate the performance of the proposed method in movement accuracy, noise robustness and structure sensitivity.

A novel concept, constraint force field, is proposed to realize high-precision movements of musculoskeletal robots. It provides a new theoretical basis for improving the performance of robotic manipulation such as assembly and grasping under the condition that the accuracy of control and sensory are limited.

Economic policy uncertainty has increased around the world since the financial crisis of 2007–2008. While scholars have devoted a lot of time and energy to investigating the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on firm innovation, they have not reached consistent research conclusions. This study aimed to clarify the above research differences by exploring the impact of EPU on firms' relative exploitative innovation emphasis, so as to provide a more comprehensive and granular understanding of the relationship between EPU and firm innovation.

This study obtained 17,165 firm-year data points from 3,107 listed companies in China. It analyzed the above data with a fixed effects model. In addition, this study used an instrumental variables method to solve potential endogeneity problems.

Based on real options theory and contingency theory, the authors proposed and found that EPU has a significant positive effect on relative exploitative innovation emphasis. In addition, the authors proposed and found that this effect is more pronounced in industries with high technological uncertainty, low competitive intensity, and low state monopolization.

This study is the first to explore why firms prefer exploitative innovation over exploratory innovation from the perspective of EPU. In doing so, this study expands and enriches the EPU literature and the innovation literature. Furthermore, by introducing the moderating role of industry environment, this study deepens the authors' understanding of how complex interactions between industry and institutional environments work together to shape firm strategic choices, and especially firm innovation. Finally, the conclusions of this study have important practical implications for shareholders to take measures to balance exploitative innovation and exploratory innovation to achieve better development.

This study aims to propose the parametric-guiding algorithm, the complex-root (CR) tunneling algorithm and the method that integrates both algorithms for the heat and fluid flow (HFF) community, and apply them to nonlinear Bratu’s boundary-value problem (BVP) and Blasius BVP.

In the first algorithm, iterations are primarily guided by a diminishing parameter that is introduced to reduce magnitudes of fictitious source terms. In the second algorithm, when iteration-related barriers are encountered, CRs are generated to tunnel through the barrier. At the exit of the tunnel, imaginary parts of CRs are trimmed.

In terms of the robustness of convergence, the proposed method outperforms the traditional Newton–Raphson (NR) method. For most pulsed initial guesses that resemble pulsed initial conditions for the transient Bratu BVP, the proposed method has not failed to converge.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the parametric-guiding algorithm, the CR tunneling algorithm and the method that integrates both have not been reported in the computational-HFF-related literature.

Dams are constructed for many purposes such as for power generation, irrigation, water supply and flood control. However, dams can also impose risks to the public, and the situation could be disastrous if dam failure occurred. The study area, Bertam Valley, is located downstream of hydroelectric dam known as Sultan Abu Bakar Dam, Cameron Highlands. The key objectives of the study are to determine the potential risk area at downstream and to assess the flooding impact on damage to buildings and infrastructures due to dam break event. ArcGIS application and output from two-dimensional flood modelling have been used as an integrated approach to analyse the impact due to dam break flood, by creating flood severity grid analysis. The result obtained shows that the estimated inundated area is about 0.28 km², and almost 197 buildings are potentially affected. Results from this study show that in the event of dam break, the huge volume of impounding water will pound to the downstream areas, threatening the populations, and environment along its path. The finding is useful to assist the local authorities and emergency responders in formulating an emergency procedure to save the people during an emergency.

Role-taking, perspective taking, and empathy have developed through parallel literatures in sociology and psychology. All three concepts address the ways that people attune the self to others’ thoughts and feelings. Despite conceptual and operational overlap, researchers have yet to synthesize existing research across the three concepts. We undertake the task of theoretical synthesis, constructing a model in which role-taking emerges as a multidimensional process that includes perspective taking and empathy as component parts.

We review the literatures on role-taking, perspective taking, and empathy across disciplines. Focusing on definitions, measures, and interventions, we discern how the concepts overlap, how they are distinct, and how they work together in theoretically meaningful ways.

The review identifies two key axes on which each concept varies: the relative roles of affect and cognition, and the relative emphasis on self and structure. The review highlights the cognitive nature of perspective taking, the affective nature of empathy, and the structural nature of role-taking. In a move toward theoretical synthesis, we propose a definition that centers role-taking as a sociological construct, with perspective taking and empathy representing cognition and affect, respectively.

Role-taking is an important part of selfhood and community social life. It is a skill that varies in patterned ways, including along lines of status and power. Theoretical synthesis clarifies the process of role-taking and fosters the construction of effective interventions aimed at equalizing role-taking in interpersonal interaction.

Research in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has grown exponentially in the last few decades. Nevertheless, significant debate remains about the relationship between CSR performance and corporate financial performance (CFP). This is particularly true for the case of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The purpose of the current study is to empirically test the relationship between CSR and CFP. We use data for 66 Chinese SOEs listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges. The results are interesting in that they are not consistent with similar studies using US and other Western market data. We find a significant negative relationship between CSR performance and CFP. The results are discussed in light of the preferential government treatment afforded to Chinese SOEs, and social welfare requirements imposed on such entities. Implications for Chinese policy-makers are discussed.