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Cemented conglomerate accumulation is a weak and heterogeneous medium that occurs in western China. It consists mainly of argillaceous cement that loses strength rapidly upon contact with water, leading to collapse instability failure. Its deformation failure mechanism is complex and poorly understood. In this paper, the erosion failure mechanism of cemented conglomerate accumulation is investigated.

The collapse failure process after erosion of the slope foot for typical cemented conglomerate accumulation is studied based on field investigation using the particle discrete element method. And how the medium composition, slope angle and cementation degree influence the failure mode and process of the cemented conglomerate accumulation is examined.

The foot erosion of slope induces a tensile failure that typically manifests as “erosion at the foot of slope – tensile cracking at the back edge of slope top – integral collapse.” The collapse failure is more likely to occur when the cemented conglomerate accumulation has a higher rock content, a steeper slope angle or a weaker cementation degree.

A model based on rigid blocks and disk particles to simulate the cemented conglomerate accumulation is developed. It shows that the hydraulic erosion at the foot of the slope resulted in a different failure mechanism than that of general slopes. The results can inform the stability management, disaster prevention and mitigation of similar slopes.

In today’s highly competitive milieu, many organizations are entering into the international market to gain greater share and take advantage of higher production. However, the introduction of advanced technology has brought a significant amount of competition within the supply chain especially within the bounds of the power distribution sector. This study aims to examine how information and knowledge sharing influence supply chain performance in the power distribution sector.

The quantitative method and cross-sectional survey design were used in the study. A sample of 200 officers specifically selected from power distribution companies was used for the study. Data was analysed using descriptive, correlation, regression and structural equation models.

The relationship between information sharing, knowledge sharing and performance of the supply chain are positively mediated by supply chain collaboration. The findings indicate that technological innovation positively moderates the relationship between information sharing, knowledge sharing and supply chain performance.

Information sharing, knowledge sharing and technological innovation are critical indicators driving the supply chain operation of power distribution organizations.

This study presents a contemporary approach towards understanding knowledge and information sharing as antecedents of supply chain performance.

Drawing upon underinvestment theory and clientele effect hypothesis, this paper aims to examine the effects of foreign currency (forex) exposure and Shari’ah-compliant status on firms’ financial hedging strategy.

Based on data of 250 nonfinancial firms listed on Bursa Malaysia from 2010 to 2018 (2,250 firm-year observations), the authors test the impact of forex exposure based on a vector of foreign-denominated cash flows (FCF) indicators and firms’ Sharīʿah-compliant status on two proxies of financial hedging decisions, namely, the ratio of the notional value of currency derivatives to total assets and a binomial measure of hedging status. The hedging decision models are estimated using panel logistic regression and system generalized method of moments.

The results indicate significant positive effects of the forex exposure indicators on firms’ propensity to hedge. However, the impact of forex exposure is most prevalent via total FCF. The results also reveal significant positive effects of Sharīʿah-compliant status on firms’ propensity to hedge but its negative impacts on the value of currency derivatives they use. The results suggest that Sharīʿah-compliant firms refrain from engaging in currency derivatives to avoid riba’ and subsequently subdue the clientele effect. However, when the forex exposure reaches higher levels, engagement in currency derivatives becomes a matter of tentative necessity (dharurat).

This study relies exclusively on the disclosure of foreign currency risk and management data in the annual reports of listed companies. Consequently, this limits the sample size to only those nonfinancial listed companies with complete data for the study period. Also, since none of the companies reports using Sharīʿah-compliant derivatives, the authors thus assume that they use derivative instruments that tolerate “riba.”

Given the significance of forex exposure on hedging decisions, the accounting profession must strictly adopt FRS 7 and FRS 139 for all listed firms to avoid market scrutiny and sustain their clientele. The results also call for the Islamic market regulators to include mandatory disclosure of conventional currency derivatives in screening firms for clearly prohibited activities to help enhance the credibility of its Islamic financial market.

Due to difficulty accessing relevant cash flow data, the study is among the few studies that measure forex exposure using FCF and test more proxy indicators. This study is perhaps the first to examine the Shari’ah perspective on currency derivatives in corporate forex risk management.

Much empirical evidence is in conflict with the expectations of the service‐profit chain which suggests that increases in customer satisfaction will increase customer loyalty and earn additional profits from customers. Management focus on the achievement of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, and associated investment, might, therefore, be misguided, if they believe that the available empirical evidence supports a link between these variables and firm performance. The purpose of this paper is to help firms understand the value of their intangible assets – most notably the important role played by customers in increasing a firm's value.

On the basis of survey‐based research carried out in the Taiwanese credit card market, this paper generates a structural equation model facilitating the measurement and evaluation of the relative efficiencies of customer‐related strategies.

The findings help managers to understand the relationship between customer‐related strategies (customer acquisition, retention, and add‐on selling) and their impact on customer measures and ultimately firm performance. Customer lifetime value is shown to be the most important indicator of financial performance and the firm's shareholder value; the customer loyalty measure is shown to have no impact on shareholder value, and to be negatively related to the implementation of an acquisition strategy.

The paper is conducted within the Taiwanese credit card market, and the findings may not be generalisable to other locations or to other markets.

These empirical findings suggest that marketing strategy has a central role in the formulation of financial policy, since such strategies can be shown to have an impact on the financial value of the business.

The paper provides further evidence linking customers with firm value, which will be important for management decision making and resource use.

This chapter proposes a protocol based on blockchain technology applied to corporate social responsibility (CSR). The first part discusses the characteristics associated with CSR actions and the main difficulties its development faces, such as transparency, security, fault tolerance, among others. Subsequently, the authors describe the characteristics and concepts related to blockchain-based developments to later describe our framework for the control and development of CSR actions based on blockchain. Herein, the authors also describe how to publicly and privately identify the participating elements of CSR and the operations and resources necessary for the implementation and operation of the proposed protocol.

Single-listed American depositary receipts (ADRs) are traded in US markets, while their underlying share is not listed in the firm’s home market. The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the factors affecting the returns and volatility of a sample of Chinese single-listed ADRs, in comparison with traditional Chinese ADRs.

The methods used in this paper are similar to those used in the examination of traditional or dual-listed Chinese ADRs. However, motivated by the very nature of single-listed ADRs, the authors estimate a base model which includes factors from the two presumably most important markets for single-listed Chinese ADRs (i.e. the Chinese and US markets). In all of the estimations, the authors follow a two-step procedure. First, the authors estimate a GARCH(1,1) model with the mean equation modeled as an AR(p) process and from those models estimate GARCH (conditional) variances.

In line with the evidence on traditional Chinese ADRs, the authors find that both the Chinese and the US markets are important predictors of single-listed ADR returns. The results are robust to variations in the model specifications.

Single-listed ADR return behavior is still an under-researched topic. In this paper, the authors contribute to the literature on Chinese single-listed ADRs by empirically examining the determinants of their mean return and volatility.

Total farmland value exceeds its value in agriculture but is not directly perceptible to villagers in China. Thus, the exceeded part is often neglected when discussing farmer’s land transaction decision. This study aims to revisit the question about how land titling project affects farmer’s land renting-out and investigate how this unobservable land value would distort the intentional effects of land titling.

This paper first modifies a two-period model by incorporating the unobservable part of land value into the farmers’ leasing decision problem. Following the implications from the theoretical analysis, this study then exploits the difference-in-differences and the triple-differences approach to confirm the distorting effects that are resulted from the unobservable land value.

The modified theoretical model of this study reveals that land titling would encourage farmers to rent out land when the unobservable land value is predicted to be low but discourage farmers’ willingness to rent-out when this value is predicted to be high. The core reason for this significant conclusion lands in the uncertainty of the unobservable land value. Empirical analysis then provided two evidences for this presumption. Furthermore, this study also gave a disproof of the argument that the uncovered discouraging effect is due to a stronger endowment effect.

This paper contributes to the literature by highlighting the unobservable land value in the farmers’ land-related decisions. This part of land value is always neglected in previous discussions about the land tenure system, but it would cause distorting effects especially in regions without private land ownership.

Cross-docking is a supply chain distribution and logistics strategy for which less-than-truckload shipments are consolidated into full-truckload shipments. Goods are stored up to a maximum of 24 hours in a cross-docking terminal. In this chapter, we build on the literature review by Ladier and Alpan (2016), who reviewed cross-docking research and conducted interviews with cross-docking managers to find research gaps and provide recommendations for future research. We conduct a systematic literature review, following the framework by Ladier and Alpan (2016), on cross-docking literature from 2015 up to 2020. We focus on papers that consider the intersection of research and industry, e.g., case studies or studies presenting real-world data. We investigate whether the research has changed according to the recommendations of Ladier and Alpan (2016). Additionally, we examine the adoption of Industry 4.0 practices in cross-docking research, e.g., related to features of the physical internet, the Internet of Things and cyber-physical systems in cross-docking methodologies or case studies. We conclude that only small adaptations have been done based on the recommendations of Ladier and Alpan (2016), but we see growing attention for Industry 4.0 concepts in cross-docking, especially for physical internet hubs.

This study aims to examine the role of authenticity in tourists’ destination selection, analyze the factors that influence tourists to form their initial opinions and explore how tourists construct the authenticity of traditional villages. The authors selected Chengkan village in Huizhou district, Huangshan city, as a case. In the study, the authors constructed an attribute-hardware-software research framework and analyzed tourists’ authentic emic experiences from the perspective of constructivism. The findings of this study suggest that tourists’ destination selection is influenced by authenticity. The destination culture brokers who interact with tourists play an essential role in forming authentic experiences. According to differences in how tourists construct authenticity, the study divided tourists into three types: primitive imagination, aesthetic reality and rational cognition. The results of this study provide a deeper understanding of various viewpoints about authenticity research and contribute to the academic discussion on how to understand the authenticity of unique cultural heritage sites such as traditional villages in the context of tourism development.