The rapid advancement of new digital technologies, such as smart technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, robotics, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT), is fundamentally changing the nature of work and increasing concerns about the future of jobs and organizations. To keep pace with rapid disruption, companies need to update and transform business models to remain competitive. Meanwhile, the growth of advanced technologies is changing the types of skills and competencies needed in the workplace and demanded a shift (...) in mindset among individuals, teams and organizations. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digitalization trends, while heightening the importance of employee resilience and well-being in adapting to widespread job and technological disruption. Although digital transformation is a new and urgent imperative, there is a long trajectory of rigorous research that can readily be applied to grasp these emerging trends. Recent studies and reviews of digital transformation have primarily focused on the business and strategic levels, with only modest integration of employee-related factors. Our review article seeks to fill these critical gaps by identifying and consolidating key factors important for an organization’s overarching digital transformation. We reviewed studies across multiple disciplines and integrated the findings into a multi-level framework. At the individual level, we propose five overarching factors related to effective digital transformation among employees: technology adoption; perceptions and attitudes toward technological change; skills and training; workplace resilience and adaptability, and work-related wellbeing. At the group-level, we identified three factors necessary for digital transformation: team communication and collaboration; workplace relationships and team identification, and team adaptability and resilience. Finally, at the organizational-level, we proposed three factors for digital transformation: leadership; human resources, and organizational culture/climate. Our review of the literature confirms that multi-level factors are important when planning for and embarking on digital transformation, thereby providing a framework for future research and practice. (shrink)

The microstructures of Ru-excess SrRuO 3 films, which were grown epitaxially on SrTiO 3 substrates by ion-beam sputtering, were studied by transmission electron microscopy. The excess Ru can be accommodated by forming extended defects on the {100} planes, faulted dislocation loops, by making RuO 2 double layers. However, the most stable crystalline phase of the excess Ru in SrRuO 3 film was metallic Ru with a hexagonal structure. The orientation relationship between the Ru precipitates, the SrTiO 3 substrate, and the (...) SrRuO 3 film can be described as follows: Ru // STO // SRO and [100] Ru //[110] STO //[110] SRO where the subscripts STO and SRO indicate SrTiO 3 and SrRuO 3 respectively. Owing to the difference between the crystal symmetries of Ru and SrTiO 3 , the precipitates showed different in-plane alignments along two perpendicular directions on the substrate and accordingly different anisotropic growth morphologies. The precipitates degrade the film surface by making deep trenches and act as sources for defect generation. (shrink)

Although companies recognize the importance of social responsibility and community engagement, conflicts between companies and communities have been noticeably increasing. To better understand the role of institutional environments in company–community conflicts, we analyze two mining conflicts—Minera Yanacocha's Minas Conga extension project in Peru and Minera Los Pelambres' El Mauro Tailings Dam in Chile. Our findings imply that, to prevent negative consequences and alleviate company–community conflicts, mining companies should address underlying structural causes and pursue informal approaches in order to obtain and (...) maintain their social license. We find that better formal institutional environments not only alleviate conflict intensity but also facilitate informal approaches through which companies and communities can cooperate to resolve conflicts. The best practice would be to start and continue dialogs between communities and companies, mediated by impartial governments, to understand the concerns of the counterparty and find means by which to address the causes. (shrink)

The importance of organizational ambidexterity was stressed in different fields of management. This study was using a distinct method to measure the differences in the degree of ambidexterity to bridge the gap with the previous studies and to provide more insights in the successful management of exploitation and exploration. This study surveyed Taiwanese small and medium-sized enterprises to test the hypotheses. We issued 1000 questionnaires in total and received 234 valid ones. Results indicate exploitative and explorative capabilities exerting non-linear effect (...) on performance. Likewise, ambidexterity and its interaction with market orientation have positive influence on firm performance. This study used structural equation modeling to analyze data, as this approach is known to be particularly advantageous for the exploratory nature of this study. We also used hierarchical regression analysis to test interaction and moderating effects. The study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, we offer a clearer understanding of the complete concept of social capital, including inter-firm and intra-firm social capital, and how contributes to improving and extending existing exploitative capabilities. Second, this study outlines how market orientation can have different effects on an ambidextrous strategy that is adopted to improve Taiwanese SMEs performance. (shrink)

Despite the increasingly multinational nature of the workplace, there have been few studies of the convergence and divergence in beliefs about ethics-based leadership across cultures. This study examines the meaning of ethical and unethical leadership held by managers in six societies with the goal of identifying areas of convergence and divergence across cultures. More specifically, qualitative research methods were used to identify the attributes and behaviors that managers from the People’s Republic of China (the PRC), Hong Kong, the Republic of (...) China (Taiwan), the United States (the U.S.), Ireland, and Germany attribute to ethical and unethical leaders. Across societies, six ethical leadership themes and six unethical leadership themes emerged from a thematic analysis of the open-ended responses. Dominant themes for ethical and unethical leadership for each society are identified and examined within the context of the core cultural values and practices of that society. Implications for theory, research, and management practice are discussed. (shrink)

The purposes of research were to describe the neonatal clinicians' personal views and attitudes on neonatal ethical decision-making, to identify factors that might affect these attitudes and to compare the attitudes between neonatal physicians and neonatal nurses in Taiwan. Research was a cross-sectional design and a questionnaire was used to reach different research purposes. A convenient sample was used to recruit 24 physicians and 80 neonatal nurses from four neonatal intensive care units in Taiwan. Most participants agreed with suggesting a (...) do not resuscitate (DNR) order to parents for dying neonates (86.5%). However, the majority agreed with talking to patients about DNR orders is difficult (76.9%). Most participants agree that review by the clinical ethics committee is needed before the recommendation of ‘DNR’ to parents (94.23%) and nurses were significantly more likely than physicians to agree to this (p=0.043). During the end-of-life care, most clinicians accepted to continue current treatment without adding others (70%) and withholding of emergency treatments (75%); however, active euthanasia, the administration of drug to end-of-life, was not considered acceptable by both physicians and nurses in this research (96%). Based on our research results, providing continuing educational training and a formal consulting service in moral courage for neonatal clinicians are needed. In Taiwan, neonatal physicians and nurses hold similar values and attitudes towards end-of-life decisions for neonates. In order to improve the clinicians' communication skills with parents about DNR options and to change clinicians' attitudes for providing enough pain-relief medicine to dying neonates, providing continuing educational training and a formal consulting service in moral courage are needed. (shrink)

The purpose of this note is to study impulsive control and synchronization of memristor based chaotic circuits shown by Muthuswamy. We first establish a less conservative sufficient condition for the stability of memristor based chaotic circuits. After that, we discuss the effect of errors on stability. Meanwhile, we also discuss impulsive synchronization of two memristor based chaotic systems. Our results are more general and more applicable than the ones shown by Yang, Li, and Huang. Finally, several numerical examples are given (...) to show the effectiveness of our methods. (shrink)

The idea of a final end of human conduct – the highest good – lies at the centre of important parts of Kant’s philosophy, such as his moral theory, his philosophy of religion, his views on the historical progress of the human species, and his conception of human rationality. This collection of new essays attempts to re-evaluate the doctrine of the highest good and to determine its relevance for contemporary philosophy.

The social network in the organizational learning process is a critical knowledge source to realize superior performance. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between relational memory, relational embeddedness, and absorptive capacity, and their impact on the relational performance of small and middle enterprises. This study empirically verifies the research framework from 223 Chinese internationalized SMEs. The results confirm previous studies that indicate positive correlations among relational embeddedness, relational memory, and absorptive capacity. The results also indicate that (...) relational embeddedness and relational memory have positive effects on relational performance. The findings show that relational memory plays a mediating role in the relationship between relational embeddedness, absorptive capacity, and relational performance. (shrink)

Speech variability facilitates non-tonal language speakers’ lexical tone learning. However, it remains unknown whether tonal language speakers can also benefit from speech variability while learning second language (L2) lexical tones. Researchers also reported that the effectiveness of speech variability was only shown on learning new items. Considering that the first language (L1) and L2 probably share similar tonal categories, the present study hypothesizes that speech variability only promotes the tonal language speakers’ acquisition of L2 tones that are different from the (...) tones in their L1. To test this hypothesis, the present study trained native Mandarin (a tonal language) speakers to learn Cantonese tones with either high variability (HV) or low variability (LV) speech materials, and then compared their learning performance. The results partially supported this hypothesis: only Mandarin subjects’ productions of Cantonese low level and mid level tones benefited from the speech variability. They probably relied on the mental representations in L1 to learn the Cantonese tones that had similar Mandarin counterparts. This learning strategy limited the impact of speech variability. Furthermore, the results also revealed a discrepancy between L2 perception and production. The perception improvement may not necessarily lead to an improvement in production. (shrink)

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most employees face increasing career-related stress, particularly those who work in multinational corporations, because the international travel constraints prevent them from going back to their families. Hence, it is imperative to investigate the critical impact of employees’ occupational burnout on career-related outcomes. In response, this research explores the moderating effect of OB on the relationships between career competencies and career sustainability. To achieve a more comprehensive understanding of relevant issues, we adopted a mixed-method research design (...) that includes both qualitative and quantitative analyses. Findings indicate that all the three dimensions of CCs were positively related to CS; moreover, OB negatively moderated the individual relationships of CC and BC with CS. The main contribution of this study is to enrich the existing career literature by addressing the critical moderating role of OB in the links of CC and BC individually with CS. Practical implications are also discussed in this study. (shrink)

Value co-creation goes through the stage of co-production, customer experience, service-dominant logic, and service ecosystem. The integration of science and technology has become a key factor to the process of VCC. The rise and application of artificial intelligence technology has added a new driving force to VCC and began to affect its original practical logic. Based on the consumer perspective, this study uses Q-methodology to measure consumer cognitive attitude toward the use of AI technology in VCC, aiming to explore the (...) key factors that affect VCC. The study found that content quality, information security, efficiency concern, and degree of manipulation have become the important concerns of consumers for VCC under AI integration. Moreover, their different statements have their specific focus and direction. The study demonstrates and analyzes the importance of the four factors and proposes the combination of human and non-human actors to shape the new model of VCC in the future, which is worth further deepening and exploring for academia and enterprises. (shrink)

Surface flattening plays an important role in the whole process of garment design. We proposed a novel method by using three-dimensional triangle mesh flattening in this study. First, the three-dimensional triangle mesh is flattened to a two-dimensional plane to approximate the original surface. The initial flattening results are then used as preliminary guesses for subsequent optimizations. Considering that the deformation energy in the real woven fabric is related to tensile or shear deformation, a simplified fabric deformation model based on energy (...) is proposed to update the energy distribution to determine the best two-dimensional pattern. An innovative unified axis system process is proposed to obtain the deformation energy, and energy relaxation in local flattening is proposed to release the distortion of flattening. Finally, the experimental results show that complex surfaces such as garments could achieve better flattening results. Compared with other energy-based methods in garment design, our proposed methods are more flexible and practical. (shrink)

Corporate social responsibility functions as a positive signal to stakeholders that a firm is a responsible corporate citizen. However, CSR is increasingly becoming an ambiguous signal of organizational goodwill because many companies engage in CSR purely out of self-interest, rather than genuine altruism. In this paper, we integrate attribution theory with signaling theory to explore how stakeholders react when they receive additional signals that contradict the company’s intended positive CSR signal. Specifically, we argue that morally questionable CEO ethics in the (...) media negatively influences stakeholders’ CSR motive attributions, which in turn results in increased cynicism that ultimately impacts CSR support intentions and behaviors. We find support for our hypotheses in a quasi-experimental study of stakeholder media exposure to different types of CEOs. Our findings demonstrate that stakeholders consider CEO ethics an important signal of CSR motives, and will shun the CSR initiatives of morally questionable CEOs. (shrink)

Die Arbeit untersucht das Verhältnis von Philosophiegeschichte und Philosophie. Unter dem Aspekt einer zyklischen und dialektisch gegliederten Philosophiegeschichte gelingt eine wechselseitige Erhellung antiker und neuzeitlicher Philosophie, besonders des platonischen und des Hegel'scher Idealismus.

The virtual brand community has become an important marketing tool for companies. A successful brand community marketing strategy should attract a large number of consumers. Although past studies have revealed consumer motivations for participating in virtual brand communities, they fail to answer an important question: Why is it so easy for some virtual brand communities to attract users while others have such difficulty? In this study, product characteristics are hypothesized to be important factors that determine consumer motivation to participate in (...) brand communities. Product characteristics can directly affect how actively consumers participate in brand communities. The results of questionnaires show that product complexity, product symbolism, and product satisfaction have a positive influence on consumers’ willingness to participate in brand communities. Notably, the duration of product use has a regulating effect on the influence of product satisfaction and product symbolism. A long period of product use weakens the influence of product satisfaction on consumers’ willingness to participate in brand communities. On the contrary, a long period of product use strengthens the influence of product symbolism on consumers’ willingness to participate in brand communities. This study enriches the literature on brand community participation and has implications for companies that aim to utilize brand communities for marketing. (shrink)

Although previous research has highlighted the positive effect of leaders’ voluntary workplace green behavior, limited research attention has been given to empirically testing how and when such behavior produces trickle-down effects. Taking a role model perspective and drawing on social identity theory, this research aims to fill this gap by proposing and testing the mechanism and boundary conditions of the influencing processes whereby leaders’ VWGB can trickle down to employees’ pro-environmental behaviors. By theorizing a moderated mediation model, the current research (...) empirically examines the hypotheses by conducting a hierarchical regression analysis. We employed a survey questionnaire research design to collect two waves of multisource data. The data used in the analysis are from survey responses of 313 subordinate-supervisor dyads at two different time points. The results show that leaders’ VWGB can have a trickle-down influence on employees’ task-related pro-environmental behavior and proactive pro-environmental behaviors through their green self-identity and that this trickle-down effect is greater among employees with higher green climate perceptions. Our results reveal the intervening mechanism and boundary condition of leaders’ VWGB by conducting a systematic examination of how this effect trickles down. (shrink)

The application of game elements of gamification in online shopping is attracting interest from researchers and practitioners. However, it remains unclear how gamification affects and improves consumer purchase intention on online shopping platforms, which still leaves a gap in our knowledge. To narrow this theoretical gap, a theoretical model has been built in this study. This model adopts cognitive evaluation theory to explain the impact of gamification elements on consumer purchase intention. Data was collected from 322 online shopping consumers who (...) used a flash game to test their purchase intention after playing games. The results show that game rewards, absorption and autonomy of gamification positively enhance sense of enjoyment, and that it helps people meet their psychological needs, which ultimately affects the online purchase intention of consumers. This study is helpful in analyzing the factors involved in the successful introduction of gamification on online shopping platforms in more detail. (shrink)

Unethical research practices are prevalent in China, but little research has focused on the causes of these practices. Drawing on the criminology literature on organisational deviance, as well as the concept of cengceng jiama, which illustrates the increase of pressure in the process of policy implementation within a top-down bureaucratic hierarchy, this article develops an institutional analysis of research misconduct in Chinese universities. It examines both universities and the policy environment of Chinese universities as contexts for research misconduct. Specifically, this (...) article focuses on China’s Double First-Class University Initiative and its impact on elite universities that respond to the policy by generating new incentive structures to promote research quality and productivity as well as granting faculties and departments greater flexibility in terms of setting high promotion criteria concerning research productivity. This generates enormous institutional tensions and strains, encouraging and sometimes even compelling individual researchers who wish to survive to decouple their daily research activities from ethical research norms. This article is written based on empirical data collected from three elite universities as well as a review of policy documents, universities’ internal documents, and news articles. (shrink)

To localize wheat ESTs on chromosomes, 882 homoeologous group 6-specific ESTs were identified by physically mapping 7965 singletons from 37 cDNA libraries on 146 chromosome, arm, and sub-arm aneuploid and deletion stocks. The 882 ESTs were physically mapped to 25 regions flanked by 23 deletion breakpoints. Of the 5154 restriction fragments detected by 882 ESTs, 2043 were localized to group 6 chromosomes and 806 were mapped on other chromosome groups. The number of loci mapped was greatest on chromosome 6B and (...) least on 6D. The 264 ESTs that detected orthologous loci on all three homoeologs using one restriction enzyme were used to construct a consensus physical map. The physical distribution of ESTs was uneven on chromosomes with a tendency toward higher densities in the distal halves of chromosome arms. About 43% of the wheat group 6 ESTs identified rice homologs upon comparisons of genome sequences. Fifty-eight percent of these ESTs were present on rice chromosome 2 and the remaining were on other rice chromosomes. Even within the group 6 bins, rice chromosomal blocks identified by 1-6 wheat ESTs were homologous to up to 11 rice chromosomes. These rice-block contigs were used to resolve the order of wheat ESTs within each bin. (shrink)

Gott als Vernunft bietet einen Überblick über zentrale religionsphilosophische Fragestellungen auf der Grundlage des objektiven Idealismus. Gott erscheint in dieser Perspektive nicht als externe Autorität, die sich durch Willkürakte und Wunder offenbart, sondern als der Kern aller Vernunftansprüche, die weder naturalistisch noch konstruktivistisch reduziert werden können. In facettenreichen Texten werden einerseits direkt religionsphilosophische Themen wie der Gnadenbegriff, die Trinitätslehre, das Theodizeeproblem, das Problem der richtigen Bibeldeutung oder die Natur interreligiösen Dialoge von der Warte einer Vernunftreligion aus abgehandelt, andererseits die Konsequenzen (...) einer religiösen Deutung der Wirklichkeit für das Teleologie-, das Freiheits-, das Leib-Seele-Problem, den Geistbegriff und das historische Auftreten des Atheismus untersucht. (shrink)