Professor Chen Ning Yang, an eminent contemporary physicist, was Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, from 1955 to 1966, and Albert Einstein Professor of Physics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook until his retirement in 1999. He has been Distinguished Professor-at-Large at the Chinese University of Hong Kong since 1986 and Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, since 1998. Since receiving his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1948, Prof (...) class='Hi'>Yang has made great impacts in both abstract theory and phenomenological analysis in modern physics. In 1983, he published "Selected Papers (1945-1980), With Commentary". It has been considered by Freeman Dyson as one of his favorite books. The present book is a sequel to that earlier volume. It is a collection of his personally selected papers (1971-2012) supplemented by his insightful commentaries. Its contents reflect Professor Yang's changing interests after he reached age sixty. It also includes commentaries written by him in 2011 when he is 89 years old. The papers and commentaries in this unique collection comprise a remarkable personal and professional chronicle, shedding light on both the intellectual development of a great physicist and on the nature of scientific inquiry. (shrink)

In 2011, Jiangsu Province set up the guidance fund for sports industry. In 2016, Jiangsu Provincial Finance Department jointly issued the document with Jiangsu Provincial Sports Bureau, which was changed to “Jiangsu Special Fund for Sports Industry Development.” By 2019, Jiangsu Province has funded 1,009 sports industry development projects with a total investment of 796.6 million yuan. The effect of the investment has attracted extensive attention from the government, society, and enterprises. Entrusted by Jiangsu Sports Industry Guidance Center, this research (...) team spent one year on the performance research of 1,009 projects supported by special funds for the development of sports industry, from the construction of evaluation index system to the design, issuance, collection, and processing of questionnaires. Using the methods of literature, questionnaire, expert interview, and mathematical statistics, this paper takes the performance management of the special funds for the development of sports industry in Jiangsu Province as the research object, based on the investigation and analysis of the current situation of the special funds for the development of sports industry in Jiangsu Province. It analyzes the special funds from four aspects: the rate of funds in place, the ratio of funds pulled, the completion rate of project implementation, and the rate of fund prerecovery. Then, this paper expounds the current situation, effectiveness, and problems of the performance management of the special funds for the development of sports industry and puts forward some countermeasures and suggestions for improvement. (shrink)

This paper proposes a novel robust fixed-time control for the robot manipulator system with uncertainties. Based on the uniform robust exact differentiator algorithm, a robust control term is constructed. Then, a robust fixed-time inverse dynamics control is proposed. For the proposed control method, the fixed-time stability of a closed-loop system with uncertainties is strictly proved. The newly proposed method exhibits the following two attractive features. First, the proposed control scheme extends the existing fixed-time IDC for the robot manipulator system to (...) the robust control scheme. Second, the proposed method is strictly nonsingular rather than the commonly used approximate approach. Simulation result demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme. (shrink)

The study of literature from the point of view of the search for archetypal images and the study of artistic creativity from the standpoint of structuralism are two important trends. Both of these trends have emerged in the contexts of different scientific paradigms. The origin of archetypal criticism is associated with the figure of Herman Northrop Fry, and the basis of archetypal criticism is psychology, namely the concept of psychoanalysis, founded by Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung. While the origin (...) of structuralism is associated with linguistics and the name of Ferdinand de Saussure, who first began to consider language as a system of signs in which each element defines other elements and is itself determined by them. With all the difference in origin, in general, both theories do not contradict each other - on the contrary, they complement each other. Archetypal literary criticism and structuralist theory of art have deep internal theoretical connections in several ways: both theories look for repetitive elements in literature, both consider literature as a space of memory about the past. Archetypal literary criticism and the structuralist theory of art direct the appeal to the psychology of man as the creator of works of art. Both directions are also largely based on the idea of binary oppositions: within the framework of the archetypal criticism of the pair, many archetypes are grouped into pairs, whereas within the framework of structuralism, the idea of structure itself is based on elementary concepts opposed to each other; finally, both methods have been criticized for the same shortcomings, such as the denial of author subjectivity and the denial of human progress. This article attempts to show that the theory of archetypes in literature and the structuralist theory of art complement each other, and how exactly this complementarity is achieved. (shrink)

To oversimplify quite a bit, scholars’ presentation of Hegel's teleology constitutes a continuum according to how more-or-less secured the progress towards the goal is supposed to be, which tracks roughly the nature of the end and its necessity. In this article, rather than focus on the end and progress towards it, we will focus on the means and structure of teleological relationships on Hegel's account. This focus follows from an essential feature of Hegel's discussion of teleology in the Logic, in (...) which teleology is introduced to solve a problem in the individuation of entities. It will turn out that the fullest actualization of the end is in the durable means, which is also thereby individuated. And it will turn out that the paradigmatic historical means—the state—is tensed, as it were, between the end and its realization that makes it synchronically historical. This synchronic historicity is missing in the usual progressive and thus diachronic accounts of the teleological process of history. But first we step back even farther (at least historically). We begin by taking up the two most important philosophical accounts of teleology for Hegel, namely those of Aristotle and Kant. Then we go to Hegel's Logic for his reconstruction of teleological processes against the background of the explanatory need for individuation. We focus on four aspects of Hegel's account: that teleology is a structure of reciprocal interaction, that the purpose is an immanent governing principle, that change is the price of immanence, and that the durable means is the teleological object par excellence. Finally, we trace these features through Hegel's account of world history and conclude with some brief remarks on the historicity of the state described in the Philosophy of Right. (shrink)

This paper is to investigate the existence and uniqueness of solutions for an integral boundary value problem of new fractional differential equations with a sign-changed parameter in Banach spaces. The main used approach is a recent fixed point theorem of increasing Ψ − h, r -concave operators defined on ordered sets. In addition, we can present a monotone iterative scheme to approximate the unique solution. In the end, two simple examples are given to illustrate our main results.

In recent years, the “financial-like” behavior of non-financial enterprises has contributed to the “off real to virtual,” which has seriously restricted the virtuous cycle of finance and economy. This study selects non-financial enterprises listed on Chinese A-shares from 2008 to 2019 as the research sample, and empirically analyzes the impact of CEOs’ financial background on the shadow banking business of non-financial enterprises and its mechanism. The results show that: CEOs’ FB has a positive effect on shadow banking business of non-financial (...) enterprises; among which, the positive effect generated by non-banking FB is stronger. The conclusions still hold after robustness tests by replacing the measurement of variables, controlling for other shocks, changing the parameter estimation method, and considering the endogeneity problem. The mechanism analysis reveals the positive effect mainly by reducing the level of entity investment by enterprises. The heterogeneity analysis finds that, on the one hand, with respect to the internal micro characteristics of enterprises, the positive effect is more significant in state-owned enterprises, non-manufacturing enterprises, and non-growth stage enterprises. On the other hand, with respect to the external macro environment, the positive effect is more significant in periods of easy monetary policy, in industries with a higher competition or in regions with a better institutional environment. This study reveals the intrinsic mechanism of CEOs’ FB and non-financial enterprises’ shadow banking business, enriches the study of the influencing factors of non-financial enterprises’ shadow banking business, and provides micro-level empirical support to alleviate the “off real to virtual” of the economy. (shrink)

This research performed four experiments to investigate the influence of infant schema cues on charitable donation intention and examine the moderating effect of gender. The results indicate that: individuals stimulated by infant schema cues had a higher willingness to donate when facing charity promotion; the main effect was not due to the perceived cuteness of character in posters; empathy played an entirely mediating role in the relationship between infant schema cues and donation intention; gender moderated the influence of infant schema (...) on donation intention: infant schema cues are effective for improving females’ donation intention, but ineffective for males. These findings contributed to the literature on infant schema and provide practical significance for introducing infant schema in charity promotion. (shrink)

A link prediction model for weighted networks based on Dempster–Shafer evidence theory and the influence of common neighbours is proposed in this paper. First, three types of future common neighbours and their topological structures are proposed. Second, the concepts of endpoint weight influence, link weight influence, and high-strength node influence are introduced. Then, the similarity based on the impacts of current common neighbours and FCNs is defined, respectively. Finally, the two similarity indices are fused by the DS evidence theory. This (...) model effectively integrates multisource information and completely exploits the influence of all CCNs and FCNs on similarity. Experiments are performed on 9 real and 40 simulation-weighted datasets, and these findings are compared with several classic algorithms. Results show that the proposed method has higher precision than other methods, which can achieve good performance in link prediction in weighted networks. (shrink)

While an increasing number of organizations have introduced artificial intelligence as an important facilitating tool for learning online, the application of artificial intelligence in e-learning has become a hot topic for research in recent years. Over the past few decades, the importance of online learning has also been a concern in many fields, such as technological education, STEAM, AR/VR apps, online learning, amongst others. To effectively explore research trends in this area, the current state of online learning should be understood. (...) Systematic bibliometric analysis can address this problem by providing information on publishing trends and their relevance in various topics. In this study, the literary application of artificial intelligence combined with online learning from 2010 to 2021 was analyzed. In total, 64 articles were collected to analyze the most productive countries, universities, authors, journals and publications in the field of artificial intelligence combined with online learning using VOSviewer through WOS data collection. In addition, the mapping of co-citation and co-occurrence was explored by analyzing a knowledge map. The main objective of this study is to provide an overview of the trends and pathways in artificial intelligence and online learning to help researchers understand global trends and future research directions. (shrink)

Chengbing WangShanxi University, Taiyuan, ChinaMichael A. PetersBeijing Normal University, Beijing, ChinaContemporary Chinese Marxism is not only an important theory in the humanities and social sc...

Architectural aesthetics mainly creates architectural beauty according to the law of beauty and realizes the interaction between creative subject and object, and receptor. Its essence has been soaked and attached to all kinds of materialized carriers and behavioral subjects in the living environment. Through the aesthetic optimization of residential house type, this paper analyzes the ventilation efficiency of representative house type, which affects the prevention and control of community infectious diseases and the physical and mental health of residents. Take multiple (...) measures to strengthen the aesthetic design of residential house type, and promote the healthy development of community ecology and the cultural inheritance of harmonious society. It is helpful for architectural designers to improve their understanding of the effect of natural ventilation and provide reference means for designers to reasonably organize indoor natural ventilation in architectural design. (shrink)

Career sustainability is a well-researched issue in academics and other sectors. Technology advancements and COVID-19 have jeopardized career sustainability. Numerous studies have explored the influence of individual characteristics on career sustainability, but few have focused on leadership. In addition, cultural factors must be considered because leadership is rooted in culture. In particular, inclusive leadership reflects traditional Chinese culture. Therefore, based on self-determination social exchange theories, we analyzed the effects of inclusive leadership on career sustainability as well as the roles of (...) thriving at work and supervisor developmental feedback in career sustainability. In total, 363 samples were collected from China. The results revealed that inclusive leadership improves career sustainability through SDF and thriving at work. Theoretically, our study fills the research gap and establishes a mechanism and theoretical framework for inclusive leadership and career sustainability. Practically, we offer guidance for enterprises to cultivate inclusive leadership and improve career sustainability. (shrink)

Employee innovation is the cornerstone of the organization, and the motivation for employee innovative behavior largely depends on the leadership style of the leader. With the economic development of society, the traditional authoritative style of leadership can no longer adapt to the psychological characteristics of employees, who use new-era work concepts, techniques, and social rules (hereafter, new generation workers). Inclusive leadership is based on the concept of “fully inclusive and equitable” in traditional Chinese culture, and it can adapt to the (...) independent needs of new generation employees. At present, the research on the relationship between the traditional leadership style and employee innovative behavior is relatively extensive, but there is little research on the relationship between inclusive leadership style and employee innovative behavior, and this needs further exploration. This paper takes new generation employees as the sample and uses psychological capital as an intermediary variable to explore the influence of inclusive leadership style on the innovative behaviors of new generation employees. We found that inclusive leadership is significantly and positively related to new generation employees’ innovative behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (shrink)

The fiscal imbalance between the central and local governments under fiscal centralization may motivate local governments to pass tax burdens on firms. The causal identification of the tax system reform and the sustainable export innovation behavior of firms are of great significance. This study uses the income tax sharing policy of China to examine the impact of fiscal centralization on the sustainable export innovation behavior of firms. We find that this tax reform has significantly inhibited the increase of the export (...) value-added rate of firms, and has an increasing trend with the share ratio between the Central Government and the local government. Moreover, this effect mainly comes from the crowding-out effect of imported intermediate goods on domestic intermediate goods. The tests show that the above conclusions are consistent with the general logic of local governments. When they face greater downward fiscal pressure, they will further pass the tax burden on local firms and force the firms to promote their export performance to expand the tax base. This short-sighted behavior of replacing “quality improvement” with “quantity increase” is an important factor that affects the sustainable export innovation behavior of firms and the climb in the global value chain. (shrink)

Most neuroimaging research in stroke rehabilitation mainly focuses on the neural mechanisms underlying the natural history of post-stroke recovery. However, connectivity mapping from resting-state fMRI is well suited for different neurological conditions and provides a promising method to explore plastic changes for treatment-induced recovery from stroke. We examined the changes in resting-state functional connectivity (RS-FC) of the ipsilesional primary motor cortex (M1) in 10 post-acute stroke patients before and immediately after 4 weeks of robot-assisted bilateral arm therapy (RBAT). Motor performance, (...) functional use of the affected arm, and daily function improved in all participants. Reduced interhemispheric RS-FC between the ipsilesional and contralesional M1 (M1-M1) and the contralesional-lateralized connections were noted before treatment. In contrast, greater M1-M1 functional connectivity and disturbed resting-state networks were observed after RBAT relative to pre-treatment. Increased changes in M1-M1 RS-FC after RBAT were coupled with better motor and functional improvements. Mediation analysis showed the pre-to-post difference in M1-M1 RS-FC was a significant mediator for the relationship between motor and functional recovery. These results show neuroplastic changes and functional recoveries induced by RBAT in post-acute stroke survivors and suggest that interhemispheric functional connectivity in the motor cortex may be a neurobiological marker for recovery after stroke rehabilitation. (shrink)

​This book focuses on the formation of human social consciousness and develops a naturalist approach to social normativity. Beginning from Marx's uncompleted concept of social consciousness, the book retrospects the studies about collective intentionality in the area of philosophy of mind and social ontology. Specifically, a reinterpretation of social consciousness with respect to collective intentionality can offer us a new, naturalistic approach to the social formation and normativity. According to the naturalistic approach, we can discern the inner structure of social (...) consciousness as a systematic pattern of Intentionality. Social consciousness involves three levels of development: subjective, objective and absolute. With this new pattern of social consciousness, the “naturalism” of the young Karl Marx can be revived. And by grasping the most essential ability of human Intentionality as the source of social formation, it also makes an interdisciplinary study of social philosophy and philosophy of mind possible. (shrink)

This field study investigated the relationship between strategic human resource management, internal environmental concern, organizational citizenship behavior for the environment, and environmental performance. The originality of the present research was to link human resource management and environmental management in the Chinese context. Data consisted of 151 matched questionnaires from top management team members, chief executive officers, and frontline workers. The main results indicate that organizational citizenship behavior for the environment fully mediates the relationship between strategic human resource management and environmental (...) performance, and that internal environmental concern moderates the effect of strategic human resource management on organizational citizenship behavior for the environment. (shrink)

We investigated the implicit learning of a linguistically relevant variable in a natural language context . Trial by trial subjective measures indicated that exposure to a form–animacy regularity led to unconscious knowledge of that regularity. Under the same conditions, people did not learn about another form–meaning regularity when a linguistically arbitrary variable was used instead of animacy . Implicit learning is constrained to acquire unconscious knowledge about features with high prior probabilities of being relevant in that domain.

With the rapid development of renewable generators such as distributed photovoltaic and profound changes of the power structure, this paper analyzes the frequency characteristics of the power system with high penetration of renewable generations in the process of low-frequency load shedding and discusses the influence of the distributed renewable generator frequency endurance capabilities on the implementation effect of low-frequency load shedding in detail. Finally, the influences of the distributed renewable generator frequency endurance capability and the capacities of the distributed renewable (...) generator on frequency response characteristics of an actual Hunan power grid are simulated. The simulation results show that more distributed photovoltaic capacity without frequency endurance capability leads to deeper frequency drops after the disturbance and requires more basic rounds of load shedding. When the penetration rate of distributed photovoltaic is too high, it may cause load shedding, resulting in power grid load losses and, at the same time, leading to an overshoot phenomenon in the process of frequency recovery. Therefore, the influence of distributed photovoltaic on the control of low-frequency load shedding should be considered when designing low-frequency load shedding schemes for the power grid with high penetration of distributed photovoltaic. (shrink)

BackgroundPsychological resilience may reduce the impact of psychological distress to some extent. We aimed to investigate the mental health status of the public during the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 and explore the level and related factors of anxiety and depression.MethodsFrom February 8 to March 9, 2020, 3,180 public completed the Zung’s Self-Rating Anxiety Scale for anxiety, Zung’s Self-Rating Depression Scale for depression, the Connor–Davidson resilience scale for psychological resilience, and the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire for the attitudes and coping (...) styles.ResultsThe number of people with depressive symptoms was 1,303. The number of people with anxiety symptoms was 1,184. The depressed group and anxiety group had less education, more unmarried and younger age, as well as had significant different in SDS total score, SAS total score, CD-RISC total score, and SCSQ score. The binary logistic regression showed that female, strength, and the subscales of active coping style in SCSQ remained protective factors and passive coping style and higher SAS score were risk factors for depression. Optimism in CD-RISC was a protective factor, and passive coping styles and higher SDS score were risk factors for anxiety.LimitationsThis study adopted a cross-sectional design and used self-report questionnaires.ConclusionThe mental health of the public, especially females, the younger and less educational populations, and unmarried individuals, should be given more attention. Individuals with high level of mental resilience and active coping styles would have lower levels of anxiety and depression during the outbreak of COVID-19. (shrink)

Widespread unethical corporate misconduct in an industry triggers industry-wide crises. This research investigates how industry misconduct affects consumers’ trust in the industry, by incorporating insights from a micro-level psychological aspect of institutions. The conceptual framework proposes that consumer legitimacy judgement lies at the core of industry trust, following an industry-wide crisis. The results demonstrate that perception of normalisation of misconduct affects industry trust through consumer legitimacy judgement. Moreover, the PNM-CLJ-industry trust relationship is stronger during industry-wide crises compared with crises that (...) involve only one firm, and this relationship is not dependent on the frequency of crises. This research contributes to the knowledge of product-harm crisis by deepening understanding of the trust erosion mechanism during industry-wide crises, with a focus on legitimacy judgement. The findings have implications for prevention of industry-wide crises and for boosting ethically desirable business activities. (shrink)

This study examines the mechanism of maternal parenting stress on marital satisfaction based on the Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation Model, and draws on the needs theory to explore the role of alone time in marital relationships under different solitude preferences. The marital satisfaction Scale, Self-rating Depression Scale, Parenting Stress Scale, Preference for Solitude Scale, and alone time scale were used to conduct a questionnaire survey of 1,387 Chinese mothers in their parenting stage. The results found that: in the overall group and the high (...) and low solitude preference level group, depression plays a significant mediating role between parenting stress and marital satisfaction. For mothers who prefer solitude, alone time can reduce the positive impact of parenting stress on depression, and but it cannot alleviate the negative impact of parenting stress and depression on marital satisfaction. In the low solitude preference level group, alone time can aggravate the positive impact of parenting stress on depression and the negative impact of parenting stress on marital satisfaction. (shrink)

This paper introduces the Generalized Argumentation Theory which takes argumentation as a locally rational socio-cultural interaction governed by social norms and carried out through discourse between the members of a socio-cultural community in order to reason things out. Then we bring in the basic structure of generalized argumentation and the localized procedure of Generalized Argumentation Theory for studying the argumentative rules. On the basis of above introduction, we use the localized procedure to analyze a case of political argumentation by reciting (...) poems in ancient China. By doing so, it’s indicated that political argumentation by reciting poems, in essence, takes cultural principle of Li of the Spring and Autumn Period as argumentative rules and uses poems to express ideas, in virtue of which arguments are accepted as locally rational by the politicians at that time. At last, the Little Red Book quotation fight, a similar political activity, is discussed briefly to show the significance that ancient Chinese political argumentation has on contemporary argumentation. (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 31, Issue 3, Page 620-633, July 2022.

As it has become more and more urgent to solve the problems of environmental protection, we consider it necessary to conduct multilevel studies to examine the impact of business strategy on both employees’ and firms’ performances in environmental protection. Synthesizing the perspectives of strategic orientation, corporate strategy, and firm performance, we propose a comprehensive theoretical model linking market orientation and environmental performance. Based on a survey of 134 matched chief executive officers, senior marketing managers and frontline workers from Chinese firms, (...) we found that market orientation positively affects environmental strategy which, in turn, influences both environmental product quality and employees’ environmental involvement. These latter two variables consequently have a positive influence on environmental performance. At the same time, environmental commitment moderates the link between market orientation and environmental strategy. (shrink)

Extant research suggests that workplace ostracism has a detrimental impact on the outcomes of employees. However, very little is known about the impact of workplace ostracism on sleep quality. Therefore, this study aimed to address this gap in the literature. By employing the extended stressor-detachment model, we investigated the mediating role of psychological detachment and the moderating role of coping humor. We used a self-report questionnaire and a time-lagged research design to assess employees’ workplace ostracism, coping humor, psychological detachment, and (...) sleep quality. A total of 403 valid questionnaires were obtained from participants in full-time employment in China. As predicted, the results showed that workplace ostracism is negatively associated with psychological detachment, which in turn, impairs sleep quality. We further found that high levels of coping humor buffer the negative effect of workplace ostracism on psychological detachment and sleep quality. In addition, the moderation effect of coping humor on the relationship between workplace ostracism and sleep quality is mediated by psychological detachment. Finally, based upon the results, we discuss the theoretical implications, provide practical proposals for managers and policymakers, and make suggestions for the direction of further research. Keywords: workplace ostracism, coping humor, psychological detachment, sleep quality, mediated moderation model. (shrink)

To address the need for a valid and reliable scale of youth leadership potential based on the development theory of leadership, the current study developed the Youth Leadership Potential Scale (YLPS) and investigated its factor structure and psychometric properties in a sample of 696 students (grades 7-9) in China. Exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) identified a five-factor solution comprising leadership information, leadership attitude, communication skills, decision-making skills, and stress management skills. ESEM within confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated an adequate fit for (...) this structure. The scale showed good composite reliability and measurement invariance across different gender and grade/age groups. The scale also showed sufficient concurrent validity with the Coping Self-Efficacy Scale, the Chinese Roets Rating Scale for Leadership, and the Leadership Skills Inventory. Furthermore, criterion-related validity was supported by the relationship between YLPS scores and the length of student leadership positions. The results suggest that the YLPS is a valid and pragmatic measure for assessing youth leadership potential. The current study is the first to develop a youth leadership potential scale based on the development theory of leadership. (shrink)

Business Ethics: A European Review, EarlyView.

We experimentally investigate whether donation motive attribution influences individual investors' judgments of the donating firm's future earnings prospects and whether individual moral orientation, that is, perceived importance of social goodwill (PISG), moderates this effect. We find that investors forecast higher future earnings per share (EPS) when the donation motive is believed to be altruistic or win–win rather than egoistic; the EPS forecasts for altruistic and win–win motives are not different. However, this motive attribution effect holds only for higher-PISG investors. A (...) further examination finds that when the donation motive is believed to be egoistic and/or when investors have lower PISG, doing good is no better than doing nothing, but no backfire effect occurs. Our findings indicate that the positive effect of corporate donation on investors' judgments is generated only when higher-PISG investors believe that the donation motive is not purely egoistic; corporate donation will not generate negative effects on investors' judgments even under less favorable conditions. (shrink)

Existing studies mainly explored the detrimental effect of employee credit claiming, and little is known about how leader credit claiming can affect employees. Based on affective events theory and relative deprivation theory, we explore how leader credit claiming affects employee work outcomes by the research methods of literature review, interview, and empirical questionnaire. With a sample of 418 matched leader–employee pairs from a large manufacturing company, we find that leader credit claiming influences employee work outcomes through the mediating role of (...) employee anger and perceived unfairness. Additionally, we determine that leader credit-claiming attribution has a moderating influence on the relationship between credit claiming and anger and between credit claiming and perceived unfairness. The results support all hypotheses. Furthermore, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the findings. (shrink)

With the advent of the era of artificial intelligence, “scenario” frequently appears in new product development and has gradually become an effective tool for analyzing user needs. However, the reasons for this phenomenon have not been explored in depth. New product development is a creative activity that requires product designers to imagine how people will live in the near future. So, we speculated that a familiar scenario that matches designers’ background can spark their entrepreneurial imaginativeness by empathic simulation and conducted (...) an experiment to research the impact of scenarios on the performance of entrepreneurial imaginativeness. Results of this study confirmed that a familiar scenario did indeed inspire entrepreneurial imaginativeness more than an unfamiliar scenario, especially for high entrepreneurial imaginativeness. This study provided a new respective for understanding the relationship between the empathy process and entrepreneurial opportunity recognition and evaluation processes and had practical implications for entrepreneurial practice, especially those that make human life better based on new digital technologies. Finally, we gave some suggestions on enhancing individuals’ entrepreneurial imaginativeness through different familiar scenarios and improving the team performance on creative tasks. (shrink)

We examine corporate philanthropic decisions in response to the local spread of COVID-19. From a strategic perspective, firms may proactively undertake philanthropic efforts to limit the spread of the pandemic and avoid a degraded business environment. From the perspective of non-trivial costs, increased economic uncertainty can raise concerns about business survival and lead to conservative philanthropic strategies. Following the proverb “prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them,” at the provincial level, our results support the second perspective. Specifically, when the spread of (...) the pandemic worsens in a province, local firms are less likely to make COVID-19-related donations in terms of likelihood and amount. Investors also react negatively, not only to the local spread of COVID-19 but also to COVID-19-related philanthropic donations. At the organizational level, our evidence indicates that there is at least some level of cost–benefit analysis underlying corporate philanthropic decisions. Specifically, corporate philanthropic donations, especially those made to the local business environment, are significantly affected by organizational-level factors, such as pre-existing resource availability and motives to acquire political and reputational resources. Overall, our multilevel study presents a comprehensive picture of corporate philanthropic decisions amid the COVID-19 crisis. (shrink)