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Integrity in research is essential so that research can do what it is supposed to do: help us discover - or get closer to - the truth about the world and how it works. Research integrity means conducting oneself in ways that are worthy of the trust that the public invests in science. Efforts over the past five decades to ensure that researchers conduct themselves with integrity have focused on regulating researcher behavior. The suite of regulatory requirements - over 100 of them - is typically managed by an office of research compliance at universities and research institutions. The regulations, and the accompanying rules and policies, have created a regulatory-industrial complex that, while necessary, should give us pause. With the proliferation of regulations, professional organizations and certifications blossom, providing much-needed training and vouching for expertise in particular regulations. This credibility is crucial, but it also gives a false impression that we can regulate our way to ethical science. Creating a regulatory-industrial complex will not achieve our goal of an ethical research enterprise. We need to build ethical institutional cultures, engage the commitment of the entire research enterprise, and do the hard work of holding accountable the entire research ecosystem.

Based on the data of the Chinese A-share listed firms in China Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2014 to 2021, this article explores the relationship between common institutional investors and the quality of management earnings forecasts. The study used the multiple linear regression model and empirically found that common institutional investors positively impact the precision of earnings forecasts. This article also uses graph neural networks to predict the precision of earnings forecasts. Our findings have shown that common institutional investors form external supervision over restricting management to release a wide width of earnings forecasts, which helps to improve the risk warning function of earnings forecasts and promote the sustainable development of information disclosure from management in the Chinese capital market. One of the marginal contributions of this paper is that it enriches the literature related to the economic consequences of common institutional shareholding. Then, the neural network method used to predict the quality of management forecasts enhances the research method of institutional investors and the behavior of management earnings forecasts. Thirdly, this paper calls for strengthening information sharing and circulation among institutional investors to reduce information asymmetry between investors and management., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Yang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

With the rapid growth and wide application of digital technology, enterprises have entered the digital era with both opportunities and challenges existing. Mergers and acquisitions are one of the most efficient ways to integrate resources and achieve profit growth, giving enterprises advantages in competing in the new mode of economic growth. Based on this, this research tries to explore whether the development of digital finance will contribute to the emergence of M&As activities through combining M&As data of the Chinese stock market with the digital finance inclusion index between 2012 and 2020. The results show that the development of digital finance largely influences M&As activities through lower acquirers' financial constraints. We further replace digital finance with three sub-indexes including coverage breadth, usage depth, and digitalization level to explore the impact of different dimensions of digital finance on M&As. Results show that coverage breadth plays a more important role. In addition, heterogeneity tests reveal that the relationship between the development of digital finance and M&As activities varies significantly. The influences of digital finance on private and western and central enterprises are more significant compared with state-owned and eastern enterprises. According to the study, since the development of digital finance can be an efficient way to ease financial constraints and boost M&As activities, the government should promote the development of digital finance while companies strive to make the most use of it., Competing Interests: NO authors have competing interests, (Copyright: © 2023 Jiang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Based on the coupling and interaction relationship between China's cultural industry (CI) and scientific & technological innovation (STI), this study constructed an index system for their coordinated development. The weight of each indicator was determined by using the entropy value method (EVM), and the coupling coordination degree (CCD) model was used to calculate CCD and coordination degree of China's CI and STI from 2012 to 2020. On this basis, the key factors in the coupling effect were analyzed using grey correlation degree (GCD). The results demonstrate that: (1) there is a high-level coupling relationship between China's CI and technological innovation; (2) the level of coupling coordination between the two is generally on the rise, experiencing a development process from serious maladjustment to high coordination; (3) Industry resources, policy support and the cost of cultural undertakings are the endogenous factors restricting the development of CI, and the environment and output of STI are the key factors restricting the coupling and coordinated development of Chinese CI and STI., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Yu, Yu. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The allocation of executives' environmental attention (EEA) is of great significance in promoting the green upgrading of industrial structures and achieving corporate green transformation. Based on upper echelon theory and the attention-based view, we use panel data of Chinese manufacturing companies from 2015 to 2020 to construct a two-way fixed effects model to explore the impact mechanism of EEA on corporate green transformation performance (CGTP). Baseline regression shows that EEA significantly improves CGTP. The reliability of findings is verified by reducing time windows, replacing the independent variable, expanding the data source, and adding missing variables. In the heterogeneity analysis, the positive effect of EEA on CGTP is significant for eastern companies and does not differ in the property rights grouping. After propensity score matching, environmental attribute grouping shows that the positive effect of EEA on CGTP is more significant for non-heavy polluters. Extended research shows that government subsidies have a positive moderating effect, while female executives play only a symbolic role. Moreover, green innovation activities have positive partial mediating effects. Green innovation is the best way to address environmental pollution and achieve corporate green transformation. Our research provides implications for decision-makers to allocate their attention, and thereby achieve green development appropriately., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Income inequality is a good indicator reflecting the quality of people's livelihood. There are many studies on the determinants of income inequality. However, few studies have been conducted on the impacts of industrial agglomeration on income inequality and their spatial correlation. The goal of this paper is to investigate the impact of China's industrial agglomeration on income inequality from a spatial perspective. Using data on China's 31 provinces from 2003 to 2020 and the spatial panel Durbin model, our results show that industrial agglomeration and income inequality present an inverted "U-shape" relationship, proving that they are the non-linear change. As the degree of industrial agglomeration increases, income inequality will rise, after it reaches a certain value, income inequality will drop. Therefore, Chinese government and enterprises had better pay attention to the spatial distribution of industrial agglomeration, thereby reducing China's regional income inequality., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Zhang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

In modern enterprises with a separation of powers, the ultimate controller can effectively influence the implementation of corporate strategy and operational management efficiency, as well as improve corporate governance by monitoring and limiting the management entrenchment effect within enterprises. Based on the information pertaining to ultimate controllers disclosed by enterprises in their annual reports, this study empirically tested whether the absence of the ultimate controller impacts investment efficiency using the data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2020. It was found that the investment efficiency of enterprises without ultimate controllers is relatively lower than those with ultimate controllers. This is reflected in the insufficient investment of enterprises without an ultimate controller. Moreover, the effect is more significant when the financial environment, internal governance environment, and external governance environment of firms are worse. The mechanism analysis demonstrated that the absence of an ultimate controller causes a more severe insider agency problem and a significantly higher degree of financing constraints, which leads to underinvestment and reduces investment efficiency of firms. The economic consequence test also found that the inefficient investment caused by the absence of ultimate controllers would damage the future value of enterprises, but would increase managers' compensation. Overall, this study suggests that ultimate controllers are an important part of a firm's internal governance, especially for monitoring management behavior and resolving agency conflicts., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Qin et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Before discussing how to balance and decide on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) and traditional revenue enhancement projects, it is crucial to clarify the relationship between corporate financial performance (CFP) and ESG. However, little attention has been paid to the nexus of ESG and CFP. This paper attempts firstly to investigate the bidirectional causality of ESG and CFP, followed by the micro-foundations, and finally, the moderating effect of intrinsic factors. A GMM-PVAR method was used to examine the research hypotheses, which can effectively deal with endogenous problems that have been ignored by traditional literature. The findings of this research demonstrate that CFP promoted ESG growth, but ESG did not boost CFP. This asymmetric causality was because CFP had a supportive effect on the environment and society pillars, while the social pillar cannot promote CFP, and the environment pillar negatively affects CFP. The relationship between ESG and CFP was moderated by total quality management, environmental sensitivity, and the pay gap. Furtherly, a panel threshold model was constructed to access the threshold effects of ESG on CFP, showing an inverted U-shape. Based on these findings, the theoretical implications, managerial prescriptions, and limitations are also discussed., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The strategic choice of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is crucial to the sustainable development of China's economy. This paper explores the impact of mixed-ownership reform on the strategic choice of SOEs from the shareholder power and the board power. We find that the greater the diversity of mixed shareholders, the depth of mixed equity, the control of mixed equity, and the excess control of mixed equity, the higher the degree of mixed-ownership reform, and the more likely it is to promote SOEs to choose the prospector strategy. The mechanism test states that the impact of mixed-ownership reform on enterprise strategy is achieved through the balance effect between non-state-owned shareholders and state-owned controlling shareholders with the same power, and the synergy effect between different powers of non-state shareholders. Further research indicates that the mixed-ownership reform has a stronger driving effect on the prospector strategy in SOEs under strict external supervision, competitive industries, and local areas. This study clarifies the governance logic of non-state-owned shareholders on the strategic positioning of SOEs by dual control rights, and it provides empirical evidence for the formulation of enterprises' market-oriented strategic objectives., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Yuan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The "double-carbon" policy is a new opportunity for the transformation of China's production sector. With steady economic growth, each province has proposed specific policies aimed at cleaner production. However, the interactions between regions and the complex linkages between industries have hindered the implementation of the "double-carbon" policy. In order to address this issue, we introduced a complex network framework with multiple industries at a national level. The framework aimed to clarify whether there is fluctuation diffusion in China's multi-province multi-industry carbon emission system, to identify key industries and regions, and to answer the question of "who" is the most effective in governance. The results showed that the fluctuations of industrial carbon emissions had a cross-regional diffusion effect in China indeed. The diffusion capacity of industry fluctuation depends on whether the industry is located at a "hub" position in the network. Hub industries with strong capacity can spread the carbon emission fluctuation of themselves and upstream or downstream industries to the whole country through regional interactions. This characteristic of the hub industry should be taken into account in governance to maximize the effectiveness of emission reduction. Shandong and Inner Mongolia, as important provinces for the production of intermediate products and energy chemicals in China, had a greater role to play in global carbon supply push from their hub industries than in the demand pull. The pulling capacity of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region to the national carbon demand side was greater than that of Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta. These findings might have implications for environmental and economic policymaking, particularly with regard to cross-provincial coordinated systemic solutions and policy anchors for synergy with industries., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Blockchain is rapidly becoming established as the core technology of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. By combining blockchain to improve processes in existing industries, innovative new services will emerge, but services not effectively applied by blockchain will also develop. This study investigated the factors to be considered when applying the characteristics of blockchain technology to business. We developed a framework of blockchain service utility evaluation indexes using the analytic hierarchy process method. The Delphi method is used to identify highly effective blockchain application service cases by applying the evaluation framework to actual use cases in the public sector. By proposing a framework of utility evaluation factors for blockchain application services, this study provides a systematic foundation for blockchain business review. We address the question of "why blockchain should be applied to this service" by providing a more comprehensive approach than existing research, such as a fragmentary decision tree. Blockchains are expected to become more active along with the full-scale digital transformation of industries, and thus, we must examine the ways to broadly use blockchain as a base technology in a form applicable to the diverse industries and societies constituting the digital economy. Accordingly, this study presents an evaluation solution for promoting efficient policies and developing successful blockchain application services., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Lee et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Learning about the regional business model is essential for the sustainable development of the regional economy. From the perspective of urban renewable energy, city A is the product of energy development. This paper analyzes the current situation and existing problems of the industrial model of city A through fuzzy k -means clustering algorithm. The results show that although the optimization of industrial structure in city A has achieved some results, the more intuitive problems mainly include low labor productivity of the primary industry, strong resource dependence, insufficient extension of industrial chain, and slow development of technology intensive industries. This paper uses fuzzy k -means clustering algorithm to select the leading industries from the perspective of the current situation of leading industries, urban development pattern, and regional policies in city A. The results show that, as a renewable resource-based city, the leading industries suitable for the current development of city A include manufacturing, power, alkali gas and water production and supply, transportation, warehousing and postal industry, leasing, and business services. The results of fuzzy k -means clustering algorithm are quite excellent, and the accuracy rate is 93.3%. This paper uses the grey dynamic linear programming model to predict the future development of the Urban A business model and combines the selection of key functions to obtain the best business model: deep and efficient technical equipment as a good goal, achieved through regional logistics, transportation, new services, etc., to enhance the output value of the tertiary industry in city A and optimize the internal structure of the secondary industry in city A., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Honglin Yuan and Bo Gao.)

A key factor for business management is the assessment of the financial situation of companies. Nowadays, it is essential to monitor the liquidity crisis, which is closely linked to corporate crises. The aim of the paper is to analyse a selected sector of the economy from the perspective of the corporate crisis and to identify the factors of crisis. More than 2000 engineering companies in Slovakia were analysed during the period from 2015 to 2019 with the aim of analysing financial results, especially in the area of financial forecast for the future. In the analysis, statistical testing of the significance of relationships using the Spearman correlation coefficient, the significance of differences by the power of t-test, regression and clustering were used. A significant part of the paper is the analysis of selected indicators of the company's crisis-Altman's Z score and the IN05 index. The results indicate that engineering companies in Slovakia are achieving good results and their financial situation is improving within the years between 2015-2019. The results can also be used as a starting point for research concerning the impact of COVID-19 in this area. In the context of corporate crisis management, engineering companies behave in the same way but it is necessary to monitor individual factors that can detect a corporate crisis. Possible measures would thus lead to the stabilization of financial results and long-term sustainable positive prospects for companies in the future., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

It has great significance for improving the logistics service ability of the Yangtze River economic belt, optimizing the industrial structure of manufacturing industry, and realizing the integrated development of the Yangtze River economic belt to explore the collaborative evolution of logistics industry and manufacturing industry in the Yangtze River economic belt, and identify the leading position of the collaborative development of the two industries, so as to. Based on the Haken Model, this paper summarizes the coevolution law of logistics industry and manufacturing industry in the Yangtze River economic belt through two-stage empirical analysis, and identifies the order parameters of the co-development of logistics industry and manufacturing industry. The results show that the overall degree of coordination between the logistics industry and the manufacturing industry in the Yangtze River economic belt is high. And the order parameter has been changed from manufacturing industry in 2003-2009 to logistics industry in 2010-2017. The gap between regions has been reduced, and the western region has the advantage of post development., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Job security can never be taken for granted, especially in times of rapid, widespread and unexpected social and economic change. These changes can force workers to transition to new jobs. This may be because new technologies emerge or production is moved abroad. Perhaps it is a global crisis, such as COVID-19, which shutters industries and displaces labor en masse. Regardless of the impetus, people are faced with the challenge of moving between jobs to find new work. Successful transitions typically occur when workers leverage their existing skills in the new occupation. Here, we propose a novel method to measure the similarity between occupations using their underlying skills. We then build a recommender system for identifying optimal transition pathways between occupations using job advertisements (ads) data and a longitudinal household survey. Our results show that not only can we accurately predict occupational transitions (Accuracy = 76%), but we account for the asymmetric difficulties of moving between jobs (it is easier to move in one direction than the other). We also build an early warning indicator for new technology adoption (showcasing Artificial Intelligence), a major driver of rising job transitions. By using real-time data, our systems can respond to labor demand shifts as they occur (such as those caused by COVID-19). They can be leveraged by policy-makers, educators, and job seekers who are forced to confront the often distressing challenges of finding new jobs., Competing Interests: For six months during the course of the study ND was a paid employee of the commercial firm Faethm AI. ND is no longer an employee of this company. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Although R&D internationalization plays an important role in enterprises' globalization, few studies explore the mechanism of R&D internationalization and emerging market companies' innovation, or the relationship between R&D internationalization, domestic technology alliances and absorptive capacity. How does the R&D internationalization of emerging market enterprises affect the innovation of those enterprises? Under fierce market competition, do absorption capacity and domestic technology alliances have a significant impact on enterprise innovation? From the perspective of the knowledge-based view, this paper studies 185 enterprises undergoing R&D internationalization in China from 2012 to 2017, using high-dimensional Poisson fixed effects model, we use instrumental (HDFE IV) estimation to explain the impact of R&D internationalization on the innovation of the parent company and the mechanism behind it. The study finds that R&D internationalization positively promotes the parent company's innovation, and domestic technology alliances and absorptive capacity play a partial mediator role in R&D internationalization. In the face of fierce market competition, domestic technical alliances play a significant role in promoting enterprise innovation, while absorptive capacity plays a negative role in promoting enterprise innovation with the moderating effect of market competition., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Inherent uncertainties in demand and supply make it problematic for supply chains to accomplish optimum inventory replenishment, resulting in loss of sales or keeping excessive inventories. To cope with erratic demands, organizations have to maintain excessive inventory levels, sometimes taking up to one-third of an organization's annual budget. The two most pressing concerns to handle in inventory management are: how much to order and when to order. Therefore, an organization ought to make the correct and timely decisions based on precise demand information to avoid excessive inventory accumulation resulting in enhanced competitive advantage. Owing to the significance of inventory control and analysis, this paper reports on developing and successfully implementing a hybrid framework for optimum level inventory forecasting in Technical Services Organizations. The proposed framework is based on a case study of one of Pakistan's leading Technical Services Organization. The paper presents a statistical analysis of historical data and a comprehensive fault trend analysis. Both these analyses set a solid foundation for the formulation of a comparative analysis matrix based upon price and quantity based analysis of inventory. Finally, a decision criterion (Forecasting Model) is proposed using three primary forecasting techniques with minimum error calculations. The study's finding shows a forecast error of 142.5 million rupees in the last five years, resulting in the accumulation of more than 25 thousand excessive inventory stock. Application of price and quantity based analysis identifies that 65% of the annual budget is significantly dependent upon only 9% (in terms of quantity) of "High Price and Small Quantity" Items (HS). These HS items are forecasted through three different forecasting methods, i.e., Weighted Moving Average, Exponential Smoothing, and Trend Projection, with Minimum Absolute Deviation to significantly reduce the forecasting error while predicting the future required quantity. The research work aims to contribute to the inventory management literature in three ways. First, a new comparative analysis matrix concept for identifying the most critical items is introduced. Second, a Multi-Criteria Forecasting Model is developed to capture a wide range of operations. Third, the paper suggests how these forecasting criteria can be integrated into a single interactive DSS to maintain optimum inventory level stock. Even though the DSS framework is based on data from a single organization, the application is expected to manage inventory stock in a wide range of manufacturing and services industries. This study's proposed hybrid framework is the first of its kind that encapsulates all four dimensions of inventory classification criteria, forming a multi-criteria hybrid model within a DSS framework., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

The management of a controllable production in the manufacturing system is essential to achieve viable advantages, particularly during emergency conditions. Disasters, either man-made or natural, affect production and supply chains negatively with perilous effects. On the other hand, flexibility and resilience to manage the perpetuated risks in a manufacturing system are vital for achieving a controllable production rate. Still, these performances are strongly dependent on the multi-criteria decision making in the working environment with the policies launched during the crisis. Undoubtedly, health stability in a society generates ripple effects in the supply chain due to high demand fluctuation, likewise due to the Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Incorporation of dependent demand factors to manage the risk from uncertainty during this pandemic has been a challenge to achieve a viable profit for the supply chain partners. A non-linear supply chain management model is developed with a controllable production rate to provide an economic benefit to the manufacturing firm in terms of the optimized total cost of production and to deal with the different situations under variable demand. The costs in the model are set as fuzzy to cope up with the uncertain conditions created by lasting pandemic. A numerical experiment is performed by utilizing the data set of the multi-stage manufacturing firm. The optimal results provide support for the industrial managers based on the proactive plan by the optimal utilization of the resources and controllable production rate to cope with the emergencies in a pandemic., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) brings radical changes for employees, organizations and societies. These changes are accompanied by unforeseeable challenges on cognitive, affective and behavioural levels, as well as fundamental questions that require a response. Work and meaning of work are changing. Organizations have to address employees' perceptions, and deal with rapid technological innovation, new work and employment concepts, as well as global and local power shifts. This conceptual article proposes selected key concepts for managing organizations and employees, namely creativity, positive emotions and solution-focus as keys to meaning-making in the 4IR. The aim of this article is to explore selected key concepts in managing 4IR organizations on a conceptual level and to stimulate future theoretical reflections and discourses of positive psychology (PP) and positive organizational psychology (POP) impacts within the 4IR transformations. Conclusions are drawn and provides recommendations for theory and practice.

This study investigates the relationship between supervisory behavior, conflict management strategies, and sustainable employee performance and inquires the mediating effect of conflict management strategies. Data were collected from the SMEs of the manufacturing industry of Pakistan. The significance of the model was assessed using the PLS-SEM (structural equation modeling). The findings of the study revealed a positive and significant relationship between supervisory behavior and sustainable employee behavior. Similarly, conflict management strategies had a positive effect on the relationship between supervisory behavior and sustainable employee behavior. This study adds in the current literature of supervisory behavior as a critical predictor of sustainable employee performance in two ways. Firstly, this study validates Conflict management strategies as an influential mediator between the relationship of supervisory behavior and sustainable employee performance. Secondly, this study provides substantial practical implications for managers at SMEs to enhance sustainable employee performance through supervisory behavior, stimulated by conflict management strategies. This study is based on cross-sectional data; more longitudinal studies can further strengthen the generalizability of relationships between the constructs. The study adds in the current literature of PLS-SEM as an assessment model for direct and mediation relationships., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

This paper proposes an optimization system for solving an NP-hard problem by using several new algorithms and application programs. This study aims to identify a suitable distribution of investment projects across several developed industrial regions. It is assumed that all industrial regions involved have the same economic and strategic characteristics. The problem involves a set of projects that are to be assigned across regions. Each project creates an estimated number of new jobs, and the distribution of projects can be guided by minimizing the maximum total number of newly created jobs. The problem is NP-hard one, and it is difficult to determine the most appropriate distribution. We apply scheduling algorithms in order to solve the analyzed problem. Severalheuristics are developedto obtain the appropriate distribution of newly created jobs across all regions. A branch-and-bound method is employed in order to obtain the exact solution. The performance of the algorithm is demonstrated by the experimental results for a total number of 1850 instances., Competing Interests: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Mafawez Alharbi and Mahdi Jemmali.)

Transnational corporations (TNCs) shape population health both positively and negatively through their national and international social, political and economic power and influence; and are a vital commercial determinant of health. Individual and group advocacy and activism in response to corporate products, practices or policy influences can mediate negative health impacts. This paper discusses the unequal power relations existing between TNCs that promote their own financial interests, and activists and advocates who support population and environmental health by challenging corporate power. It draws on interview data from 19 respondents who informed 2 health impact assessments conducted on TNCs; 1 from the fast food industry, and 1 from the extractive industries sector. It reveals the types of strategies that civil society organizations (CSOs) have used to encourage TNCs to act in more health promoting ways. It discusses the extent to which these strategies have been effective, and how TNCs have used their power to respond to civil society action. The paper highlights the rewards, and the very real challenges faced by CSOs trying to change TNC practices related to health, within a neoliberal policy environment. It aims to provide evidence for socially oriented actors to inform their advocacy for changes in public policy or corporate practices that can contribute to improving population health and equity and tackling commercial determinants of health., (© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

The research on core-periphery structure of global trade from a complex-network perspective has shown that the world system is hierarchically organized into blocks and that countries play different roles in the world economy. Yet, little attention has been paid to investigating whether the sectoral international trade networks conform to a core-periphery structure, hence what is the role of different levels of processing in creating and maintaining structural inequality. This issue is of particular importance given the contemporary focus upon global production networks and reshaping of the international division of labor. With this in mind, we propose a model (LARDEG) from network science to reexamine old theories in economics, such as core-periphery structures in sectoral international trade networks and test whether the global value chains have changed structural positions in terms of the level of processing. The economic background of our model permitting a more accurate sorting of countries into structural positions and the general stability of results have provided for a more solid measurements than has hereto been possible. Our algorithm naturally produces networks with hierarchically nested block structure obtained from an iterative decomposition of the network periphery such that each block represents a vertex set of a maximal size sub-graph existing at different levels. The results not only lend support to the previous hierarchical model of the world-system (core, semi-periphery, and periphery) but also find that, depending on particular industry, the number of analytically identifiable blocks could be more than three. We show that 'size effect' is the one that prevails for core block membership at the first hierarchical level, while the GNI per capita is a much poorer proxy for the world-system status. Moreover, the patterns of blocks we label as the second- or third-level 'core' are strongly dependent on distance and geographical proximity. Overall, the various configurations of asymmetrical trade patterns between our blocks and the remarkably stable position of core countries at the top of structure clearly indicate that the rise of global production networks has actually restored a huge and unequal international division of labor splitting the world into 'headquarter' and 'factory' economies., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

The article on the basis of analysis of declassified materials of the State Archive of the Russian Federation covers the history of the organization of industrial production of penicillin in the USSR in second half of the 1940s. The analysis of the documents demonstrated that existed huge gap between health needs of the antibiotic and actual quantity of its production by the end of 1945. This raised the question of organizing its large-scale production. The Soviet Government tried to solve the problem in the least expensive way i.e. through using available industrial areas for the development of penicillin production, refusing to buy ready-made penicillin plants abroad, maximal application of resources of international organizations. The problem of mastering advanced technologies of antibiotic production, as well as development of national equipment for penicillin plants was mainly solved through efforts of intelligence service activities. Due to organizational, technological, foreign policy causes, the development of new penicillin plants was delayed for a long time. The amounts of penicillin production by existing enterprises did not cover the needs of health care in the antibiotic.

Understanding factors preventing populations of endangered species from being self-sustaining is vital for successful conservation, but we often lack sufficient data to understand dynamics. The global Asian elephant population has halved since the 1950s, however >25% currently live in captivity and effective management is essential to maintain viable populations. Here, we study the largest semi-captive Asian elephant population, those of the Myanma timber industry (~20% global captive population), whose population growth is heavily limited by juvenile mortality. We assess factors associated with increased mortality of calves aged 4.0-5.5 years, the taming age in Myanmar, a process affecting ~15,000 captive elephants to varying degrees worldwide. Using longitudinal survival data of 1,947 taming-aged calves spanning 43 years, we showed that calf mortality risk increased by >50% at the taming age of four, a peak not seen in previous studies on wild African elephants. Calves tamed at younger ages experienced higher mortality risk, as did calves with less experienced mothers. Taming-age survival greatly improved after 2000, tripling since the 1970's. Management should focus on reducing risks faced by vulnerable individuals such as young and first-born calves to further improve survival. Changes associated with reduced mortality here are important targets for improving the sustainability of captive populations.

Background: Employers are required to get expert advice whenever needed to ensure a safe work environment. Providers of Occupational Health Services (OHS) could be such experts, but their services are usually used to provide health-related support to individuals, not preventive Occupational Health and Safety Management (OHSM) or other group-focused interventions., Objective: To investigate how contracts with OHS providers in Sweden are established and implemented., Methods: Written OHS contracts were reviewed, and follow-up interviews were conducted with Human Resource (HR) managers, management, safety representatives, and OHS professionals in seven organizations., Results: Generally, the HR departments drew up the contracts with the OHS providers. The contracts were not integrated with the companies' occupational health and safety management. Managers lacked knowledge on how to utilize services offered by their OHS provider. Terms and conditions of contracts were found to be inconsistent with services actually utilized., Conclusions: The procurement and implementation process promotes reactive rather than preventive interventions. Employers should include managers and safety representatives in procurement- and implementation processes and define relevant and measurable goals regarding the collaboration.

Forty-three years after it was founded, with billions of dollars invested, the global biotech industry is still not positioned as a mature low-risk sector for the international investor com-munity. Despite the clear commercial success of a number of leading companies and overall growth of the industry's rev-enues, most biotech companies are not profi table and many fail to overcome the formidable barrier constituted by the high cost of the sector's research and development. However, over the last four years, visible signs of change have appeared, which could be harbingers of an approaching turning point in this trend.This article analyzes the historic background of the biotech in-dustry's business models and corporate structures, as well as their impact on the industry's fi nancial framework. It examines recent changes implemented by the sector's main actors-in-cluding young startups, venture capital funds and big pharma companies-to mitigate fi nancial risk associated with develop-ment of new biotechnology products.Finally, it discusses the challenges and opportunities that these tendencies entail for Cuban biotechnology development and proposes adoption of business policies more tolerant of the fi nancial risk inherent in this sector, as a condition for at-tracting venture capital. KEYWORDS Biotechnology, fund raising, risk management, entrepreneurship, Cuba.

Background: Fatigue is a concern in ferry shipping as it has a negative impact on crew members health and plays a major role in marine incidents and accidents. Research within land-based occupational settings has found that work-family conflict is an important risk factor for fatigue and that support from leaders constitutes a possible resource with the potential to buffer a negative impact from work-family conflict. Though, the working conditions of ferry shipping are likely to interfere with employee's family life those two factors have received little attention in research on seafarers' health. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the direct associations between work-family conflict as well as leaders' support with fatigue in employees of the Danish ferry shipping industry. Further, the study aimed at testing whether support could buffer potential detrimental associations between work-family conflict and fatigue., Methods: The study design was cross-sectional, and 193 respondents answered to a self-administered questionnaire. Fatigue was measured with the Swedish Occupational Fatigue Inventory. Perceived work-family conflict and perceived supervisor support were assessed with two subscales from the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire. The association of potential risk factors with fatigue was determined using hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses., Results: After controlling for confounding, work-family conflict was found to be positively associated with four of the five subdimensions of fatigue; lack of energy, physical discomfort, lack of motivation and sleepiness, while more support from supervisors was related to less lack of energy, physical exhaustion and lack of motivation. Further, supervisor support was found to moderate the effect from work-family conflict on the physical subdimensions of fatigue., Conclusion: Although restricted by its cross-sectional design and a limited sample, this study provides support for the independent relevance of work family conflict and support from nearest superior for employee fatigue in ferry shipping. Further, there was evidence for a moderating role of such support on the negative impact of work-family conflict on the physical aspects of fatigue. Shipping companies may consider commencing initiatives which reduce conflicts between family life and work obligations, and that leader support may be a relevant component in such initiatives.

With the awakening of environmental consciousness, more and more firms desire to go "green" by shifting their focus of corporate social responsibility (CSR) from charitable contributions to environmental actions called corporate environmental responsibility (CER). We develop a monopoly differential game to depict optimal corporate strategies of product price, quality, and CER. Using the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation, we analyze optimal feedback equilibrium strategies for pricing and investing in both quality and CER with/without government subsidies. Numerical simulations show that government subsidy can improve CER and profit.

The relationship between open innovation and company's competitive advantage, and organisational capabilities required remains to be explained. This study was conducted to answer the following questions. Does open innovation create organisation's competitive advantage? What types of capabilities are needed in the process of open innovation reaching competitive advantage, and what kind of relationship do they have? This study extends the scope of theoretical discussion about open innovation from the point of dynamic capability view. The results confirmed the statistical significance of the path linking open innovation to competitive advantage through product innovation. From the viewpoint of capabilities, transforming capability plays a role of significant prerequisite of sensing capability and seizing capability, having a direct or indirect significant effect on product innovation performance and competitive advantage sequentially. The results suggest that the linkages between the needed capabilities of organisation must be considered for performing open innovation to secure competitive advantage., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

This study focuses on visible and invisible air pollutants and their impacts on China's hotel industry. Overall, visible air pollutants may block the sights and sceneries and worsen the quality of visitors' sensory experiences, and invisible air pollutants are unlikely to result in the same perceptions and sensations. Hence, different types of air pollutants may have various impacts on the hotel industry's operational performance. We employed a bootstrapped truncated regression model to investigate whether different types of air pollutants had distinctive impacts on the hotel industry. The dataset consisted of 31 provinces of China for the period 2012-2015. Empirical results indicate that visible air pollutants significantly decrease the operational efficiency of China's hotel industry, while invisible air pollutants insignificantly affect the hotel industry.

The water industry in every country aims to effectively and efficiently provide water with satisfactory quality in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. To this end, it is critical to achieve effective communication among the partners in water supply chain networks. In this paper, we focus on one of the UK's largest water utility companies and its eight main contractors and analyze the factors influencing partner and network communication in a managed programme of their asset supply chain. We employ social network analysis to conduct the cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of partner communication. Factors found to influence the communication network are grouping of projects within the programme, individual's organisational affiliation, status, tenure, elapsed time through the programme lifecycle, and co-location. Our contributions to practice include demonstrating water programme management factors that influence communication and trust and how social network analysis can better inform them about intra- and interorganisational relationships. Moreover, the methodology introduced in this study may be applied to water management in other parts of the world.

To investigate the effects of government environmental regulation and industrial structure changes on carbon dioxide emissions, this research analyzes annual data over the period 2003-2015 covering 30 provinces in China (except for Tibet) with the panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) model. The empirical results show obvious non-linear effects of environmental regulation and industrial structure on carbon dioxide emission. Taking the effects of both linearity and non-linearity into consideration, environmental regulation will reduce carbon emissions with the change of industrial structure rationalization (SR). When the level of industrial structure optimization (SH) is low, environmental regulation promotes carbon dioxide emissions. When the level of industrial structure optimization (SH) is high, environmental regulation plays a significant inhibitive role on carbon dioxide emissions. The Kuznets relationship between GDP per capita (PGDP) and carbon dioxide emissions is influenced by local industrial structure rationalization and industrial structure optimization. Therefore, environmental regulation policies suitable for local conditions should be made based on the transition of the local industrial structure.

Industrial chemicals differ in their treatment methods and types, depending on their physicochemical properties. Highly volatile chemicals are emitted despite installation of preventive facilities, such as scrubbers and adsorption towers. Some countries release a Toxic Release Inventory (TRI), which is a mandatory report on the amount of chemicals emitted annually. This report is released to the citizens to ensure their right to knowledge and life. Numerous methods have been devised to investigate the amount of chemical emissions. There are four methods to estimate TRI emissions (Emission Factor Method; Material Balance Method; Source Testing Method; Emission Model Method). Moreover, efforts have been made to increase awareness and formulate plans to reduce chemical emissions. Despite this, the TRI method tends to underestimate and overestimate, especially due to volatile compounds. If the results of the TRI emissions are underestimated, toxic chemicals can have a negative impact on citizens. Volatile compounds are commonly used in chemical manufacturing plants, such as paint plants. In this study, a suitable method for each industrial process was suggested based on conservative estimates of multiple toxic chemical inventory method, focusing on the paint manufacturing process. In the paint manufacturing plant, storage, weighing, and mixing processes should be used emission model method to estimate TRI. In the reaction process, TRI must be estimated by the source test method. In the transfer process, the emission factor method should be used to estimate TRI. In the atmosphere prevention process, the emission factor method or source testing method should be used depending on the physical and chemical properties such as vapor pressure of the chemical.

From the perspective of green growth, which seeks to coordinate and make sustainable the development of resources, the environment, and the economy, this study's aim was to find out whether the high-tech industry along the Belt and Road (B&R) is sustainable and effective in using resources, reducing environmental pollution, and increasing performance. This study used panel data covering 16 provinces (municipalities) along the B&R in China between 2009 and 2016. This study used the directional distance function (DDF) and the global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) index model to analyze the technological innovation efficiency (TIE) of the high-tech industry (HTI) while considering the undesirable output (environmental pollution). Further, supplemented by ArcGIS geographical analysis, this study carried out a comparative analysis of the TIE and its decomposition in the HTI along the B&R from geographical and time-series dimensions. Moreover, the panel Tobit regression model was used to analyze the influencing factors of TIE. The results show that the direct financial support of the government has no impact on the improvement of TIE in the HTI, the government's regulation of environmental pollution can significantly affect the improvement of the TIE, the intensity of R&D has a significantly negative impact on the TIE, a higher level of R&D personnel in the HTI can be helpful in improving TIE, and increasing the import and export trade volumes of the HTI can promote TIE.

In recent years, with the rapid development of the economy, industrial pollution problems have become more and more serious. This paper constructs an evolutionary game model for industrial pollution between the local governments and enterprises to study the dynamic evolution path of a game system and the evolutionary stable strategy under two punishment mechanisms. The results show that, in a static punishment mechanism (SPM), the strategy between governments and enterprises is uncertain. Moreover, the evolutionary trajectory between governments and enterprises is uncertain. However, under the dynamic punishment mechanism (DPM), the evolution path between governments and enterprises tends to converge to a stable value. Thus, the DPM is more conducive than the SPM for industrial pollution control., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Background: This study aims to explore the development of job demands, decision authority and social support within and between industries with different gender composition in Sweden between 1991 and 2013., Methods: Cross-sectional data from 12 waves of the Swedish Work Environment Surveys (1991 to 2013), comprising in total 109,698 respondents, were used. Industries were classified in 7 categories according to its gender composition and main activity, comprising two female-dominated, three gender-mixed and two male-dominated industries. Proportions of workers reporting high job demands, low decision authority and poor social support between 1991 and 2013 were calculated. Logistic regression analyses were performed to estimate variation across time, using 1991 as the reference category, and between industries, using knowledge intensive services as the reference category. Estimates for high job demands, low decision authority and poor social support were presented as average marginal effects (AMEs)., Results: The probabilities of reporting low decision authority were higher in education and health and social care during the whole study period, for both genders, compared with the reference category of knowledge intensive services. The probability of having high job demands were higher for men and women in education, and women in health and social care, compared with the reference category. Men in the male dominated industries had increased job demands over time, compared to the beginning of the study period (1991). The probability of reporting poor social support was higher in the later than in the earliest time period for women in the female-dominated industry health and social care as well as in the gender-mixed labour intensive services industry., Conclusions: There has been a negative development of job demands and decision authority in the female-dominated industries education and health and social care in Sweden, whereas social support has developed more negatively for women in health and social care and in labour intensive services.

The updated Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) beryllium standard for general industry, construction, and shipyards reduced exposure limits for this known human carcinogen and became effective in 2018. Occupational and environmental health nurses need to monitor updates recently proposed for general industry to clarify implementation of the standard.

Social science has distinct advantages and challenges when it comes to communicating its findings to the public. Its topics are often highly accessible to the general public, yet its findings may be counterintuitive and politically contentious. Conveying recent changes in the organization of the American economy provides an illustration of the difficulties and opportunities for engaging the public. The declining number of public corporations in the United States is associated with a shrinking middle class, lower opportunities for upward mobility, and a fraying social safety net, with important implications for individuals and public policy. Attempting to convey this set of findings to a broad public has demonstrated that some strategies and communication channels work better than others, and that some online media are particularly effective., Competing Interests: The author declares no conflict of interest.