This article examines whether the charitable giving amount and likelihood of firm response to catastrophic events relate to firms’ ownership type using a unique dataset of listed firms in China, where state ownership is still prevalent. Based on the data of Chinese firms’ response to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, we find that the extent of corporate contributions for state-owned firms following this disaster is less than that for private firms. State-owned firms are also less likely to respond in␣this disaster compared (...) to private firms. The results also␣reveal that firm size, profitability, geography, cash resource available, and leverage affect firms’ philanthropic disaster response behavior in China. (shrink)

In response to the lack of empirical studies examining the internal disclosure behavior in the Chinese context, this study tested a whistleblowing -decision-making process among employees in the Chinese banking industry. For would-be whistleblowers, positive affect and organizational ethical culture were hypothesized to enhance the expected efficacy of their whistleblowing intention, by providing collective norms concerning legitimate, management-sanctioned behavior. Questionnaire surveys were collected from 364 employees in 10 banks in the Hangzhou City, China. By and large, the findings supported the (...) hypotheses. Issues of whistleblowing in the Chinese context and implications were discussed. (shrink)

Taking advantage of the China’s recent anti-corruption campaign, we attempt to examine the effect of public governance on a firm’s incentive to commit fraud. Using enforcement actions data from the Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) from 2004 to 2014, we find that, due to enhanced public governance, firms are less likely to commit fraud in the post-campaign period than in the pre-campaign period. We further show that the effect of public governance is more evident in privately held listed firms, in (...) firms with weak legal environment, and in firms in areas with poor local economies. In addition, we find that older CEOs respond less actively to the public governance caused by anti-corruption regulations. This paper offers clear policy implications for business ethics by indicating that public governance provides external monitoring of corporate decisions. (shrink)

Guanxi in China is a very ancient concept embedded in the Confucian concept of life and one that is a ‚hot' topic in that it is currently attracting increasing attention from both Western and Chinese scholars. One aspect of Guanxi which has been the subject of most of the research of late is the influence of Guanxi on firm performance. However, relatively few studies have examined how Guanxi at the individual level is transferred into a firm to influence its financial (...) performance. This study first reclassifies Guanxi into obligatory, reciprocal, and utilitarian types at the individual level as a means to clarifying the confusion brought above from previous studies. It then provides a conceptual framework in which to systematically characterize the link between Guanxi at the individual level and organizational dynamics: that is, how is Guanxi at the individual level shifted to a firm and how does it affect organizational dynamics of that firm at the organizational level. Finally, it provides a deeper understanding of the financial implications of Guanxi to business firms in China. (shrink)

We study the relationship between climate change social norms (CCSN) and corporate cash holdings for U.S. firms. We find that county-level CCSN is significantly positively associated with cash holdings. Our main finding is robust to a battery of robustness tests. In a subsample analysis, we find that firms have relatively low cash holdings in low CCSN counties even when faced with high climate risk. For such firms, the lack of cash buffer could be harmful to a broader set of stakeholders (...) faced with heightened climate risk. We also show that cash holdings are a potential mechanism through which CCSN influences future environmental corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Overall, our study suggests that county-level CCSN has significant implications for corporate cash holdings. (shrink)

High-performance work systems -performance research has dominated innovative human resource management studies for two decades. However, mainstream HPWS research has paid little attention to employees’ perceptions of HPWS, or to the relationship between HPWS and corporate social performance. The influence of CSP on employee outcomes such as organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviour has thus been similarly neglected. This paper seeks to investigate these missing links in literature using data collected from a sample of 700 employees in China. The findings (...) demonstrate that HPWS is positively related to HPWS satisfaction and employees’ perceptions of CSP. HPWS satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between HPWS and employees’ affective commitment. There are multiple mediators between HPWS and OCB, indicating more complicated mechanisms through which HPWS leads to desired HR outcomes. Employees’ perceived CSP has a significant influence on HPWS satisfaction, AC and OCB, suggesting firms should place a premium on achieving a reputation as being socially responsible. (shrink)

In his paper, “A Causal Argument for Physicalism” (Zhong, 2023), Zhong presents a novel argument for non-reductive physicalism (which he calls “A2”), based on the causal argument for reductive physicalism (which he calls “A1”), and claims that A2 is better than A1 since the premises in A2 are more plausible than those in A1. In this paper, I will argue that A2 fails to be a sound argument for non-reductive physicalism, or even physicalism per se, because the premises in A2 (...) can be fulfilled by the kind of dualism which claims that the physical event (P), the mental event (M), and their effect (E) form a causal chain and that P and M are simultaneous causes. Also, I will argue that we do have ways to strengthen A2 to block the aforementioned problem. But the only plausible way to strengthen the argument is to appeal to the conservation of energy and momentum. And this favors A1 more than A2. So, I conclude that A2 is not better than A1, and a causal argument for physicalism still naturally favors reductive physicalism. (shrink)

In the artificial intelligence literature a promising approach to counterfactual reasoning is to interpret counterfactual conditionals based on causal models. Different logics of such causal counterfactuals have been developed with respect to different classes of causal models. In this paper I characterize the class of causal models that are Lewisian in the sense that they validate the principles in Lewis’s well-known logic of counterfactuals. I then develop a system sound and complete with respect to this class. The resulting logic is (...) the weakest logic of causal counterfactuals that respects Lewis’s principles, sits in between the logic developed by Galles and Pearl and the logic developed by Halpern, and stands to Galles and Pearl’s logic in the same fashion as Lewis’s stands to Stalnaker’s. (shrink)

In this paper, a finance system with delay is considered. By analyzing the corresponding characteristic equations, the local stability of equilibrium is established. The existence of Hopf bifurcations at the equilibrium is also discussed. Furthermore, formulas for determining the direction of Hopf bifurcation and the stability of the bifurcating periodic solutions are derived by applying the normal form method and center manifold theorem. Finally, numerical simulation results are presented to validate the theoretical analysis. Numerical simulation results show that delay can (...) lead a stable system into a chaotic state. (shrink)

Universal Bundle Theory holds that objects are fundamentally identical with bundles of universals. Universals are multiply instantiable properties. One popular objection to UBT concerns the possibility of distinct indiscernibles. There are mainly two replies in the literature, corresponding to two representative UBTs, which I shall call the Identity-View and the Instance-View. Each view faces serious problems. This paper proposes a new version of UBT and argues that it is better than these other two versions.

In higher education, student learning satisfaction is a significant predictor of learning that indicates the commitment students have to their learning and future academic achievement. The study combines the social cognitive career theory and the stimulus-organism-response model to explore the psychological cognition and attitudes derived from students during their learning, discusses the pattern of student learning satisfaction enhancement from the aspect of process, and further understands the relationships among social support systems, interaction relationships, self-efficacy, generic skills, and learning satisfaction. In (...) this study, 800 valid copies of questionnaires were collected from 12 universities through purposive sampling, and the structural model was analyzed by partial least squares structural equation modeling. The results showed that the relationships among all the constructs were positive and showed a significant effect; furthermore, the research results showed that self-efficacy and student generic skills had a significantly indirect effect in the model—specifically, a mediating effect. Finally, corresponding theoretical and practical implications were put forward based on the research results. (shrink)

ObjectivesTo describe reporting of informed consent in pragmatic trials, justifications for waivers of consent and reporting of alternative approaches to standard written consent. To identify factors associated with (1) not reporting and (2) not obtaining consent.MethodsSurvey of primary trial reports, published 2014–2019, identified using an electronic search filter for pragmatic trials implemented in MEDLINE, and registered in ClinicalTrials.gov.ResultsAmong 1988 trials, 132 (6.6%) did not include a statement about participant consent, 1691 (85.0%) reported consent had been obtained, 139 (7.0%) reported a (...) waiver and 26 (1.3%) reported consent for one aspect (eg, data collection) but a waiver for another (eg, intervention). Of the 165 trials reporting a waiver, 76 (46.1%) provided a justification. Few (53, 2.9%) explicitly reported use of alternative approaches to consent. In multivariable logistic regression analyses, lower journal impact factor (p=0.001) and cluster randomisation (p<0.0001) were significantly associated with not reporting on consent, while trial recency, cluster randomisation, higher-income country settings, health services research and explicit labelling as pragmatic were significantly associated with not obtaining consent (all p<0.0001).DiscussionNot obtaining consent seems to be increasing and is associated with the use of cluster randomisation and pragmatic aims, but neither cluster randomisation nor pragmatism are currently accepted justifications for waivers of consent. Rather than considering either standard written informed consent or waivers of consent, researchers and research ethics committees could consider alternative consent approaches that may facilitate the conduct of pragmatic trials while preserving patient autonomy and the public’s trust in research. (shrink)

This paper extends the AGM theory of belief revision to accommodate infinitary belief change. We generalize both axiomatization and modeling of the AGM theory. We show that most properties of the AGM belief change operations are preserved by the generalized operations whereas the infinitary belief change operations have their special properties. We prove that the extended axiomatic system for the generalized belief change operators with a Limit Postulate properly specifies infinite belief change. This framework provides a basis for first-order belief (...) revision and the theory of revising a belief state by a belief state. (shrink)

This study aims to explore the role of informal leader–member interactions in managing counterproductive work behavior in a non-Western context. We propose that under the Chinese background, guanxi with supervisor increases employees’ job satisfaction, which further reduces their CWB. Partial least square structural equation modeling with a sample of 272 Chinese employees confirms this mediating effect of job satisfaction. However, we also find that job satisfaction passes the effect of guanxi with supervisor on to CWB targeting people, but not to (...) CWB targeting the organization. Implications for research on CWB and guanxi with supervisor are discussed. (shrink)

In this article, I try to document the lived experiences of nurses who were sent to Wuhan to work in the COVID‐19 wards and consider the impact of such experiences on their psychological well‐being. I show the contextual factors in Wuhan, the inherent nature of nursing during the pandemic and the transition from the immediate reactions of nurses to long‐term impacts on their personalities, formed through the whole process of abjection. Therefore, I argue that we need to consider how nursing (...) experiences, before, during and after their professional work in the wards, would instigate abjection within nurses. The abjection of nurses does not start only from the ward, nor does it not end in the ward. Rather, the abjection of nurses, as a reaction to lived experiences, is nuanced and the study of it can reveal rich details of nurses' life both inside and outside of the ward. (shrink)

In this paper, we investigate the ultimate bound set and positively invariant set of a 3D Lorenz-like chaotic system, which is different from the well-known Lorenz system, Rössler system, Chen system, Lü system, and even Lorenz system family. Furthermore, we investigate the global exponential attractive set of this system via the Lyapunov function method. The rate of the trajectories going from the exterior of the globally exponential attractive set to the interior of the globally exponential attractive set is also obtained (...) for all the positive parameters values a,b,c. The innovation of this paper is that our approach to construct the ultimate bounded and globally exponential attractivity sets assumes that the corresponding sets depend on some artificial parameters ; that is, for the fixed parameters of the system, we have a series of sets depending on λ and m. The results contain the known result as a special case for the fixed λ and m. The efficiency of the scheme is shown numerically. The theoretical results may find wide applications in chaos control and chaos synchronization. (shrink)

Searching for integrable systems and constructing their exact solutions are of both theoretical and practical value. In this paper, Ablowitz–Kaup–Newell–Segur spectral problem and its time evolution equation are first generalized by embedding a new spectral parameter. Based on the generalized AKNS spectral problem and its time evolution equation, Lax integrability of a nonisospectral integrodifferential system is then verified. Furthermore, exact solutions of the nonisospectral integrodifferential system are formulated through the inverse scattering transform method. Finally, in the case of reflectionless potentials, (...) the obtained exact solutions are reduced ton-soliton solutions. Whenn=1andn=2, the characteristics of soliton dynamics of one-soliton solutions and two-soliton solutions are analyzed with the help of figures. (shrink)

We examine a formal semantics for counterfactual conditionals due to Judea Pearl, which formalizes the interventionist interpretation of counterfactuals central to the interventionist accounts of causation and explanation. We show that a characteristic principle validated by Pearl’s semantics, known as the principle of reversibility, states a kind of irreversibility: counterfactual dependence (in David Lewis’s sense) between two distinct events is irreversible. Moreover, we show that Pearl’s semantics rules out only mutual counterfactual dependence, not cyclic dependence in general. This, we argue, (...) suggests that Pearl’s logic is either too weak or too strong. (shrink)

Although the role of leadership in fostering employee creativity has been extensively studied, it is still unclear whether and how leader humor affects employee creativity. Drawing upon cultural representation theory, we examined creative self-efficacy as a mediator and traditionality as a situational factor in the relationship between leader humor and employee creativity by analyzing a sample of 306 employees and 88 leaders collected through survey questionnaire from firms based in Hubei Province, China, covering the industries of automobile, IT, and medicine. (...) Following the multi-level examination, leader humor was positively related to employee creativity, and creative self-efficacy was found to mediate the impact of leader humor on employee creativity. Furthermore, traditionality moderated the effect of leader humor on creative self-efficacy, as well as the indirect effect of leader humor on employee creativity through creative self-efficacy. This study provides a social psychological explanation for the association between humor and employee creativity, deepens the current understanding of the influence process of leader humor. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed at the end alongside limitations and recommendations for future research. (shrink)

As a value-led entity, the nonprofit depends on its staff for the delivery of the brand value outsides and thus promoting the brand inside is crucial to the development of the nonprofits. Using a sample of 290 full-time staff working in 270 nonprofits in China, two related studies were conducted. Study 1 aimed to develop and validate a new scale for internal branding in the nonprofit context, while Study 2 aimed to investigate the linking mechanism between internal branding and brand (...) performance with the mediating roles of the person–organization fit and intent to stay with the brand. As predicted, the results revealed that: the nonprofit internal branding scale is a three-dimensional construct that is composed of brand-centered training, internal brand communication, and brand-oriented leadership, internal branding positively predicts POF, IntSB, and brand performance, and POF and IntSB sequentially mediate the internal branding–brand performance relationship. The implications of our findings for internal branding in the nonprofit context are discussed. (shrink)

Quantum B‐algebras are partially ordered algebras characterizing the residuated structure of a quantale. Examples arise in algebraic logic, non‐commutative arithmetic, and quantum theory. A quantum B‐algebra with trivial partial order is equivalent to a group. The paper introduces a corresponding analogue of quantale modules. It is proved that every quantum B‐module admits an injective envelope which is a quantale module. The injective envelope is constructed explicitly as a completion, a multi‐poset version of the completion of Dedekind and MacNeille.

This paper is a complete student-led, student-edited collective writing project (CWP) conducted virtually in Spring 2022 throughout the course Knowledge Socialism taught by professor Michael Peters for the Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal university. The CWP involves 4 international, 5 domestic Ph.D. students, and 2 senior Western scholars as reviewers, revealing their thoughts, arguments, understanding, and criticisms towards the creative economy status in East Asian countries (Japan and China mostly) higher education as reflected in the knowledge socialism narratives. Xiyuan as (...) the lead author, co-editing with Woraport and Stefan, assigned each section to other authors and successfully devoted themself to organizing, proofreading, and revising the paper. Through a month of collective work, the final version of the paper elaborates on the contribution of East Asian creative universities and the economy as a whole to the knowledge socialism through co(labor)ation, with implications to the creative labors cultivation and shifted roles of students. (shrink)

Theory-of-mind (ToM) involves modeling an individual’s mental states to plan one’s action and to anticipate others’ actions through recursive reasoning that may be myopic (with limited recursion) or predictive (with full recursion). ToM recursion was examined using a series of two-player, sequential-move matrix games with a maximum of three steps. Participants were assigned the role of Player I, controlling the initial and the last step, or of Player II, controlling the second step. Appropriate for the assigned role, participants either anticipated (...) or planned Player II’s strategy at the second step, and then determined Player I’s optimal strategy at the first step. Participants more readily used predictive reasoning as Player II (i.e., planning one’s own move) than as Player I (i.e., anticipating an opponent’s move), although they did not differ when translating reasoning outcome about the second step to optimal action in the first step. Perspective-taking influenced likelihood of predictive reasoning, but it did not affect the rate at which participants acquired it during the experimental block. We conclude that the depth of ToM recursion (related to perspective-taking mechanisms) and rational application of belief–desire to action (instrumental rationality) constitute separate cognitive processes in ToM reasoning. (shrink)

Size perception of visual objects is highly context dependent. Here we report a novel perceptual size illusion that the self-face, being a unique and distinctive self-referential stimulus, can enlarge its perceived size. By using a size discrimination paradigm, we found that the self-face was perceived as significantly larger than the other-face of the same size. This size overestimation effect was not due to the familiarity of the self-face, since it could be still observed when the self-face was directly compared with (...) a famous face. More crucially, such illusion effect could be extended to a new cartoon face that was transiently associated with one's own face and could also exert further contextual influences on visual size perception of other objects. These findings together highlight the role of self-awareness in visual size perception and point to a special mechanism of size perception tuned to self-referential information. (shrink)

A novel conservative chaotic system with no equilibrium is investigated in this study. Various dynamics such as the conservativeness, coexistence, symmetry, and invariance are presented. Furthermore, a partial-state feedback control scheme is proposed, and the stable domain of control parameters is analyzed based on the degenerate Hopf bifurcation. In order to verify the numerical simulation analysis, an analog circuit is designed. The simulation results show that the output of the analog circuit system can reproduce the numerical simulation results and verify (...) the correctness of the theoretical analysis. (shrink)

Many studies have linked idealized body image on social media to negative psychological well-being among young females. However, social media influencers’ imagery has not attracted much research attention in either the Western or the Asian context. This study aimed to experimentally investigate the impact of high versus low popular social media influencer images on young Chinese females’ body satisfaction and mood. The participants were 420 female RED users who were randomly assigned to three groups: the influencer-high group ; the influencer-low (...) group ; or a control set of nature images. The results revealed that the groups exposed to influencer imagery had lower body satisfaction and more negative mood than the control group. Notably, this comparison showed no significant difference between the low-influencer and high-influencer groups in body satisfaction and mood. Additionally, this effect was moderated by individuals’ self-discrepancy between personal ideals and their own bodies. That is, exposure to idealized body images does not always produce harmful effects. For those with lower self-discrepancy, idealized body posts somewhat positively affected their body satisfaction. The current research contributes to the media effect literature by providing critical new insights into the study of body image in the context of China. (shrink)

Many scholars make a very clear distinction between intelligence and consciousness. Let’s take one of the most famous today, Israeli history Professor, Yuval Noah Harari, the author of Sapiens and Homo Deus. In his 2018 book, 21 lessons for the twenty-first century, he writes that, “intelligence and consciousness are very different things. Intelligence is the ability to solve problems. Consciousness is the ability to feel things such as pain, joy, love, and anger.”.

Entry of new organizations, including multinational enterprises from emerging markets, raises the ethical question of will they benefit society. The concept of legitimacy answers this question because it is the overall assessment of the appropriateness of organizational ends and means. Moreover, gaining legitimacy enables EMNEs to succeed in new host countries. Past work examined collective level indicators of the legitimacy of MNEs, but recent research recognizes the importance of individuals’ perceptions as the micro-foundation of legitimacy. This study first uses new (...) pragmatism, deontology, and utilitarianism to demonstrate that legitimacy is fundamentally an ethical concept—a perspective that has been overlooked in management research. Second, this study uses a seven-step procedure to develop and validate a measure of individuals’ perceptions of the legitimacy of Chinese EMNEs operating in The Netherlands, a developed country. Six dimensions of legitimacy were identified. The study also finds support for this legitimacy judgment process linking the dimensions: validating knowledge → propriety judgments → generalized judgment. This work provides additional micro-foundations to research on legitimacy and contributes to the ongoing process of construct validation. Future research could use the validated measure in other settings and use specific ethical theories in depth to refine the concept of legitimacy. (shrink)

This paper challenges the traditional metaphysical assumption that properties can be located in spacetime and examines the ontological implications of categorizing spacetime itself. By introducing a two-category ontology, we argue that attempts to locate properties in spacetime represent a category mistake, as this notion fails to address the fundamental categorization of spacetime. We propose that the notion of instantiation should be conceptually separated from spatiotemporal location, thereby allowing for properties that are Platonic yet immanent. Furthermore, we reevaluate the debate between (...) Platonism and Aristotelianism, advocating that Platonic properties can possess a form of immanence previously thought to be exclusive to Aristotelian frameworks. This reformation not only underscores the need for categorizing spacetime but also reshapes our understanding of the instantiation and immanence of properties within ontological dependence frameworks. (shrink)

Previous studies have reported abnormal amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation and regional homogeneity in patients with migraine without aura using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. However, how whole brain functional connectivity pattern homogeneity and its corresponding functional connectivity changes in patients with migraine without aura is unknown. In the current study, we employed a recently developed whole brain functional connectivity homogeneity method to identify the voxel-wise changes of functional connectivity patterns in 21 patients with migraine without aura and 21 gender and (...) age matched healthy controls. Moreover, resting-state functional connectivity analysis was used to reveal the changes of corresponding functional connectivities. FcHo analyses identified significantly decreased FcHo values in the posterior cingulate cortex, thalamus, and left anterior insula in patients with migraine without aura compared to healthy controls. Functional connectivity analyses further found decreased functional connectivities between PCC and medial prefrontal cortex, between AI and anterior cingulate cortex, and between THA and left precentral gyrus. The functional connectivities between THA and PCG were negatively correlated with pain intensity. Our findings indicated that whole brain FcHo and connectivity abnormalities of these regions may be associated with functional impairments in pain processing in patients with migraine without aura. (shrink)

We present a general theory of series-parallel mental architectures with selectively influenced stochastically non-independent components. A mental architecture is a hypothetical network of processes aimed at performing a task, of which we only observe the overall time it takes under variable parameters of the task. It is usually assumed that the network contains several processes selectively influenced by different experimental factors, and then the question is asked as to how these processes are arranged within the network, e.g., whether they are (...) concurrent or sequential. One way of doing this is to consider the distribution functions for the overall processing time and compute certain linear combinations thereof (interaction contrasts). The theory of selective influences in psychology can be viewed as a special application of the interdisciplinary theory of (non)contextuality having its origins and main applications in quantum theory. In particular, lack of contextuality is equivalent to the existence of a “hidden” random entity of which all the random variables in play are functions. Consequently, for any given value of this common random entity, the processing times and their compositions (minima, maxima, or sums) become deterministic quantities. These quantities, in turn, can be treated as random variables with (shifted) Heaviside distribution functions, for which one can easily compute various linear combinations across different treatments, including interaction contrasts. This mathematical fact leads to a simple method, more general than the previously used ones, to investigate and characterize the interaction contrast for different types of series-parallel architectures. (shrink)

C.S. Peirce offered an evaluation of Bentham's philosophy to the effect that on some points Bentham's performance was of great value, but essentially, he was ‘a shallow logician’ confined to analysis of ‘lower motive’. This paper argues that Bentham's logic is deeply metaphysically based, multi‐levelled, and comprehensive. There are at least three constituent parts in his utilitarian logic: the first is his ontology, with its distinction between real and fictitious entities, and with pain and pleasure constituting the core real entities; (...) the second is his reductionism in, and analytical view of, simple and complex pleasures and pains; the third is the distinction between private ethics and public ethics. Bentham's logic is staunchly based on empiricism and truth and he developed a pragmatic utilitarian solution to overcome the potential impasse of Hume's scepticism through a mechanism of reflection. Even the doctrines of belief and abduction embraced and developed by Peirce are contained in Bentham's utilitarian logic. Bentham would certainly take Peirce's philosophy as ipse dixitism. Peirce was not in fact a serious reader of Bentham and failed to employ the distinction between argument and argumentation in his study of Bentham's logic. (shrink)