Megaprojects are implemented by different organisations, such as owners, consultants, and contractors. Gradually, these organisations and their connections can form business networks that influence both the market position of individual organisations and project performance. Previous research on large-scale projects mainly focused on static and homogeneous networks that were constructed by one individual project and/or carried out over one-off collaboration. However, this neglected the consideration of project network diversity, as well as repetitive, dynamic, cross-project coopetition relationship and long-term business networks formed (...) by key actors. Here, we chose Chinese skyscrapers over 300 meters that were built from 1996 to 2015 as typical megaproject cases and analysed the formation and evolution of megaproject business networks from the perspective of interorganisational coopetition. We identified the key actors involved and empirically studied their dynamic network positions over time. The main contributions of this study are threefold. First, we found that past collaboration experience has direct and dynamic impacts on the formation of megaproject business networks. Second, we identified key actors in the interorganisational business network and unveiled their dynamic positions with clear patterns. Third, we highlighted the temporal-spatial effect on the formation and development of business networks, alongside developments in the megaproject market. The findings of this study also provide practical applications for owners to choose collaboration partners and to build high-performance teams and for suppliers to enter and sustain the business in the megaprojects networks. (shrink)

Advocates of an ‘extended evolutionary synthesis’ have claimed that standard evolutionary theory fails to accommodate epigenetic inheritance. The opponents of the extended synthesis argue that the evidence for epigenetic inheritance causing adaptive evolution in nature is insufficient. We suggest that the ambiguity surrounding the conception of the gene represents a background semantic issue in the debate. Starting from Haig’s gene-selectionist framework and Griffiths and Neumann-Held’s notion of the evolutionary gene, we define senses of ‘gene’, ‘environment’, and ‘phenotype’ in a way (...) that makes them consistent with gene-centric evolutionary theory. We argue that the evolutionary gene, when being materialized, need not be restricted to nucleic acids but can encompass other heritable units such as epialleles. If the evolutionary gene is understood more broadly, and the notions of environment and phenotype are defined accordingly, current evolutionary theory does not require a major conceptual change in order to incorporate the mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance. _1_ Introduction _2_ The Gene-centric Evolutionary Theory and the ‘Evolutionary Gene’ _2.1_ The evolutionary gene _2.2_ Genes, phenotypes, and environments _3_ Epigenetic Inheritance and the Gene-Centred Framework _3.1_ Treating the gene as the sole heritable material? _3.2_ Epigenetics and phenotypic plasticity _4_ Conclusion. (shrink)

This study empirically examined the effects of ethical leadership and ethical climate on employee ethical behavior in the international port context using survey data collected from 128 respondents who worked in Taiwan International Ports Corporation in Taiwan. Research hypotheses were formulated from the previous literature and tested using structural equation modeling. Results indicated that ethical leadership had a significant impact on ethical climate and the ethical behavior of TIPC employees. Ethical climate was found to be positively associated with employee ethical (...) behavior. The theoretical and practical implications of the research findings are discussed. (shrink)

This paper rigorously examines the primitive foundations of economic reasoning through a framework based on symbolic logic. Extending previous work, it formalizes economic conceptions (\(\mathbb{C}\)), symbols (\(s_i\)), and introduces a structured language (\(\mathcal{L_{\mathbb{C}}}\)) to define their formation and interpretation. Organized as a continuous chain of declarations and illustrations, the paper offers a concise, systematic approach to understanding the philosophy of economic reasoning through formal symbolic representations.

This study explores how and when ethical leadership predicts three forms of team-level creativity, namely team creativity, average of member creativity, and dispersion of member creativity. The results, based on 230 members of 44 knowledge work teams from Chinese organizations, showed that ethical leadership was positively related to team creativity and average of member creativity but was negatively related to dispersion of member creativity. Consistent with the predictions of uncertainty reduction theory, psychological safety climate mediated the relationship between ethical leadership (...) and the three forms of team-level creativity. Furthermore, supervisor support for creativity positively moderated the effect of ethical leadership on psychological safety climate and the indirect effects of ethical leadership on the three forms of team-level creativity through psychological safety climate. The analysis offers significant theoretical and practical implications on ethical leadership and creativity in organizations. (shrink)

The outbreak of COVID-19 is a public health crisis that has had a profound impact on society. Stigma is a common phenomenon in the prevalence and spread of infectious diseases. In the crisis caused by the pandemic, widespread public stigma has influenced social groups. This study explores the negative emotions arousal effect from online public stigmatization during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on social cooperation. We constructed a model based on the literature and tested it on a sample of (...) 313 participants from the group being stigmatized. The results demonstrate: (1) relevance and stigma perception promote negative emotions, including anxiety, anger, and grief; (2) the arousal of anger and grief leads to a rise in the altruistic tendency within the stigmatized group; and (3) stigmatization-induced negative emotions have a complete mediating effect between perceived relevance and altruistic tendency, as well as perceived stigma and altruistic tendency. For a country and nation, external stigma will promote the group becoming more united and mutual help. One wish to pass the buck but end up helping others unintentionally. We should not simply blame others, including countries, regions, and groups under the outbreak of COVID-19, and everyone should be cautious with the words and actions in the Internet public sphere. (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, EarlyView.

With the gradual deepening of environmental problems and the increase in consumer awareness of environmental protection, many enterprises have already begun to pay attention to green supply chain management. However, the price of green products is higher than that of nongreen products, which is an enormous challenge for many small- or medium-sized enterprises. To study the pricing and coordination of green supply chains under capital constraints, a model consisting of a manufacturer and a capital-constrained retailer is established; the manufacturer invests (...) in green products and provides a deferred payment contract. Setting the situation without capital constraints as a benchmark, this study explores the impact of the retailer’s capital constraints on the manufacturer’s product greenness design; an interesting result shows that deferred payment can help encourage the retailer to order more products and improve the profit of the manufacturer and the efficiency of the entire supply chain as well as the product’s greenness level simultaneously. However, the profit of the retailer will be hurt by the deferred payment contract. Therefore, to guarantee the profit of the entire channel and to make the two agents obtain a win-win outcome, a new two-way revenue-sharing contract is designed to coordinate the green supply chain. (shrink)

This paper analyzes the relation between shame and a Confucian notion of yi (righteousness, rightness), especially through discussions from Confucius and Mencius. Section one clarifies Mencius’s position that righteousness is both external and internal. Although this idea includes rules, it is primarily something intended by our innate moral feelings. Section two illustrates the point that if one’s action is not right (yi), the feeling of shame spontaneously arises and motivates a self-correction. This section also clarifies the difference between the idea (...) of shame in Max Scheler and in Confucian thought. Section three compares absolute yi with general li (ritual propriety) as well as the roles that shame and duty play in relation to ren (primarily humane love). (shrink)

Reflecting the currently growing eco-movement, this book presents to western readers Tao Yuanming, an ancient Chinese poet, as a representative of classical oriental natural philosophy who offered lived experience of "dwelling poetically on earth." Drawing on Derrida's specter theory, it interprets Tao Yuanming in a postmodern and eco-critical context, while also exploring his naturalist "kindred spirits" in other countries, so as to urge the people of today to contemplate their own existence and pursuits. The book's "panoramic" table of contents offers (...) readers a wonderful reading experience. (shrink)

This paper presents social data and knowledge collective intelligence platform for TRaining Ethical AI Models (STREAM) to address the challenge of aligning AI models with human moral values, and to provide ethics datasets and knowledge bases to help promote AI models “follow good advice as naturally as a stream follows its course”. By creating a comprehensive and representative platform that accurately mirrors the moral judgments of diverse groups including humans and AIs, we hope to effectively portray cultural and group variations, (...) and capture the dynamic evolution of moral judgments over time, which in turn will facilitate the Establishment, Evaluation, Embedding, Embodiment, Ensemble, and Evolvement (6Es) of the moral capabilities of AI models. Currently, STREAM has already furnished a comprehensive collection of ethical scenarios, and amassed substantial moral judgment data annotated by volunteers and various popular Large Language Models, collectively portraying the moral preferences and performances of both humans and AIs across a range of moral contexts. This paper will outline the current structure and construction of STREAM, explore its potential applications, and discuss its future prospects. (shrink)

Frequent pattern mining is an effective approach for spatiotemporal association analysis of mobile trajectory big data in data-driven intelligent transportation systems. While existing parallel algorithms have been successfully applied to frequent pattern mining of large-scale trajectory data, two major challenges are how to overcome the inherent defects of Hadoop to cope with taxi trajectory big data including massive small files and how to discover the implicitly spatiotemporal frequent patterns with MapReduce. To conquer these challenges, this paper presents a MapReduce-based Parallel (...) Frequent Pattern growth algorithm to analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics of taxi operating using large-scale taxi trajectories with massive small file processing strategies on a Hadoop platform. More specifically, we first implement three methods, that is, Hadoop Archives, CombineFileInputFormat, and Sequence Files, to overcome the existing defects of Hadoop and then propose two strategies based on their performance evaluations. Next, we incorporate SF into Frequent Pattern growth algorithm and then implement the optimized FP-growth algorithm on a MapReduce framework. Finally, we analyze the characteristics of taxi operating in both spatial and temporal dimensions by MR-PFP in parallel. The results demonstrate that MR-PFP is superior to existing Parallel FP-growth algorithm in efficiency and scalability. (shrink)

Many formerly incarcerated people have civil legal needs that can imperil their successful re-entry to society and, consequently, their health. We categorize these needs and assess their association with cardiovascular disease risk factors in a sample of recently released people. We find that having legal needs related to debt, public benefits, housing, or healthcare access is associated with psychosocial stress, but not uncontrolled high blood pressure or high cholesterol, in the first three months after release.

This paper investigates the integrity of financial analysts by examining their recommendation responses to large quarterly earnings surprises. Although there is no significant difference in recommendation changes between affiliated and unaffiliated analysts in response to positive earnings surprises, affiliated analysts are more reluctant than unaffiliated analysts to downgrade stock recommendations in response to negative earnings surprises. The evidence implies that conflicts of interest undermine the integrity of financial analysts. We further examine the effects of reputation concern and the Global Research (...) Analyst Settlement as informal and formal mechanisms, on restoring analysts’ integrity. The results show that the positive bias in recommendations remains prevalent for affiliated analysts from reputable investment banks and for the postreform period. Finally, evidence from market reactions suggests that investors fail to notice that analysts’ integrity is compromised by conflicts of interest and are misled by affiliated analysts. (shrink)

Several commentators have noted that “justice has not fared well in the revival of virtue ethics”; it “has become damagingly marginalized” and “no longer has a starring role.” Given its traditional place among the four cardinal virtues this is a remarkable state of affairs and yet exactly this has occurred has not been adequately explored or explained. In this paper, I argue that the particular moral virtue of justice has been largely disregarded by the contemporary virtue theorists primarily because their (...) conception of justice is so different from Aristotle’s. Accordingly, they do not need the virtue of justice to do the kind of explanatory work in their systems that it does in Aristotle’s. (shrink)

In order to improve the iris classification rate, a novel biogeography-based optimization algorithm based on local search and nonuniform variation was proposed in this paper. Firstly, the linear migration model was replaced by a hyperbolic cotangent model which was closer to the natural law. And, the local search strategy was added to traditional BBO algorithm migration operation to enhance the global search ability of the algorithm. Then, the nonuniform variation was introduced to enhance the algorithm in the later iteration. The (...) algorithm could achieve a stronger iris classifier by lifting weaker similarity classifiers during the training stage. On this base, the convergence condition of NBBO was proposed by using the Markov chain strategy. Finally, simulation results were given to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed iris classification method. (shrink)

Positioning accuracy of micropositioning stage in scanning ion conductance microscopy is the key to obtain high-precision scanning model. Most piezoelectric ceramic micromotion platforms are used for that, and hysteresis characteristics are the main reason for the nonlinear characteristics of piezoelectric ceramics and the influence on the control accuracy. In order to solve this problem, backpropagation algorithm based on whale optimization algorithm is used to model the hysteresis, which is directly used as a feedforward controller to compensate the hysteresis effect, and (...) the robust adaptive moving average control method is used for feedback control. The results show that the hysteresis model of backpropagation algorithm based on the whale optimization algorithm can fit the hysteresis curve well, and the maximum fitting error is 0.2050 μm, only 0.256%. By adopting feedforward and feedback, feedforward robust adaptive moving average control algorithm decreases the hysteresis from 17.64% to 2.51%, which enables the output of the piezoelectric ceramic controller to track the expected displacement well and makes it possible to improve the scanning accuracy. (shrink)

The libidinal economy could be exploited by both political movements and advertising campaigns in a pictorial space that is related to the social space at any historical moment. The arrangement of desires in a propaganda poster of the Chinese Cultural Revolution is, in light of political semiotics, the same as in a campaign poster in a consumer society today. The same libidinal economy is rooted in our political unconsciousness and remains to be the deep structure of our political performance. A (...) critical image analysis or a political semiotic critique of this libidinal economy that rules us in the Chinese Cultural Revolution and in consumer society today is necessary and urgent. (shrink)

People are known for good predictions in domains they have rich experience with, such as everyday statistics and intuitive physics. But how well can they predict for problems they lack experience with, such as the duration of an ongoing epidemic caused by a new virus? Amid the first wave of COVID-19 in China, we conducted an online diary study, asking each of over 400 participants to predict the remaining duration of the epidemic, once per day for 14 days. Participants’ predictions (...) reflected a reasonable use of publicly available information but were meanwhile biased, subject to the influence of negative affect and future time perspectives. Computational modeling revealed that participants neither relied on prior distributions of epidemic durations as in inferring everyday statistics, nor on mechanistic simulations of epidemic dynamics as in computing intuitive physics. Instead, with minimal experience, participants’ predictions were best explained by similarity-based generalization of the temporal pattern of epidemic statistics. In two control experiments, we further confirmed that such cognitive algorithm is not specific to the epidemic scenario and that minimal and rich experience do lead to different prediction behaviors for the same observations. We conclude that people generalize patterns in recent history to predict the future under minimal experience. (shrink)

Studies on Chinese nationalism in Western academia have been influenced by a popular theory called ‘the culturalism-to-nationalism thesis’, a loosely formulated interpretive paradigm which emerged in late 1960s. The literature on this topic, however, reveals an inadequate understanding of traditional Chinese thinking and its influence on Chinese thought in modern history. An examination of the work of Li Dazhao (1889–1927) and his philosophical heritage not only will open up a valuable source for us to rethink about this thesis and its (...) defects, but also will shed light on the complicated background and perspective that give rise to modern Chinese nationalism. Given the interest in Chinese nationalism in contemporary world, an understanding of its historical roots is particularly timely, since in order to understand China’s current and future actions one must understand the origins of Chinese nationalist thinking and its transformations in time. This paper makes a contribution to that historical understanding. I argue that traditional Chinese philosophy, especially the Daoist world view and Confucian ethics played a significant role in shaping Li’s patriotic and nationalist stance. It also predisposed him intellectually to accept the internationalist characteristic of Marxism. (shrink)

As more and more firms operate globally, an understanding of the effects of cultural differences on ethical decision making becomes increasingly important for avoiding potential business pitfalls and for designing effective international marketing management programs. Although several articles have addressed this area in general, differences along specific, cultural dimensions have not been directly examined. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine differences in ethical decision making within Hofstede's cultural framework. The results confirm the utility of Hofstede's cultural dimensions (...) and place ethical decision making within an overall theoretical framework. Sales agents from a high power distance, uncertainty avoidant, Confucian, collectivist culture (i.e., Taiwan) placed more value on company and fellow employee interests (vis-à-vis self interests) than did managers from a masculine, individualistic culture (i.e., the United States). American and Taiwanese managers did not differ in their deontological norms or on the importance that they placed on customer interests. The theoretical and managerial importance of these findings are also discussed. (shrink)

Impossible de considérer la promotion, l’essor et le développement des idées libérales en Chine au xx e siècle sans prendre en compte la figure de Hu Shi (1891-1962) et l’influence que son œuvre exerça. Pendant toute sa vie intellectuelle, Hu Shi se tint au premier rang des intellectuels chinois désireux de moderniser leur pays. Parti se former aux États-Unis très tôt, il concentra ses recherches sur les (r)évolutions littéraires et entreprit d’analyser l’histoire de la philosophie chinoise avec les méthodes scientifiques (...) occidentales. Il entendait non seulement changer les façons de parler et d’écrire dans le monde académique, mais encore les styles de pensée et de vie au sein de la population chinoise. Il devint l’un des plus prestigieux intellectuels de la Chine moderne, en s’engageant activement dans la vie politique. Il poursuivitl’idéal d’une « bonne gouvernance », même en régime de parti unique. L’invasion par le Japon interrompit ses efforts et la guerre civile le mit en difficulté, quoiqu’il ait aidé dans une certaine mesure à restaurer l’autorité d’une administration centrale indispensable à un pays en voie de développement au territoire immense et à la population énorme : les efforts à déployer pour le moderniser vite et fort sont à cette mesure. Hu Shi dut quitter la Chine continentale. Dans les dernières années de sa vie, il fut un symbole de la relation entre les États-Unis et le régime du Kuomintang à Taïwan, mais nombre de ceux qu’il avait formés et qui étaient restés en Chine continentale critiquaient sa position, au sein de la communauté académique. Or Hu Shi prit lui-même ses distances avec le Kuomintang (KMT dans cet article), en levant toujours haut la bannière du libéralisme et d’une « Chine libre ». Classification JEL : B13, B31, N25, P26. (shrink)

Countering the claims that competition contradicts and undermines ethical thought processes and actions, Christoph Lütge successfully argues that competition and ethics do not necessarily have to oppose one another. He highlights how intensified competition can in fact work in favour of ethical goals, and that many criticisms of competition stem from an out-dated understanding of how modern societies and economies function. Illustrating this view with examples from ecology, healthcare and education, the author calls for a more entrepreneurial spirit in analysing (...) the relationship between competition and ethics. This book delivers important arguments for the ethics of innovation, using a combination of theoretical and practical evidence to support it. Researchers and scholars of economics, business, philosophy and politics will greatly benefit from the fresh interdisciplinary perspectives and thorough exploration of the complex relationship between modern competition and ethics. (shrink)

Optimal strategy, one of the main transit assignment models, can better demonstrate the flexibility for passengers using routes in a transit network. According to the basic optimal strategy model, passengers can board trains based on their frequency without any capacity limitation. In the metropolitan cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, morning commuters face huge transit problems. Especially for the metro system, there is heavy rush in metro stations. Owing to the limited train capacity, some passengers cannot board the (...) first coming train and need to wait for the next one. To better demonstrate the behavior of passengers pertaining to the limited train capacity, we consider capacity constraints for the basic optimal strategy model to represent the real situation. We have proposed a simulation-based algorithm to solve the model and apply it to the Beijing Subway to demonstrate the feasibility of the model. The application of the proposed approach has been demonstrated using the computational results for transit networks originating from practice. (shrink)

The reversible phosphorylation of proteins on serine/threonine residues preceding proline (Ser/Thr‐Pro) is a major regulatory mechanism for the control of a series of cell cycle events. Although phosphorylation is thought to regulate protein function by inducing conformational changes, little is known about most of these conformational changes and their significance. Recent studies indicate that the conformation and function of a subset of these phosphorylated proteins are controlled by the prolyl isomerase Pin1 through isomerization of specific phosphorylated Ser/Thr‐Pro bonds. Furthermore, compelling (...) evidence supports the idea that proline‐directed phosphorylation and subsequent isomerization play a critical role not only in cell cycle control, but also in the development of Alzheimer's disease, where postmitotic neurons display various cell cycle markers, especially mitotic events, prior to degeneration. BioEssays 25:174–181, 2003. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

In the vein of Peirce’s communication philosophy, language communication inevitably suffers from its vagueness and uncertainty. Paradoxically, what enables this vagueness and uncertainty to be solved, and the condition of communication to be sufficiently met, is not language itself, but “collateral experience” communicators may weave, exchange, and share in communication. Collateral experience is forceful in penetrating the “universe,” in which communicators may be engaged, and in helping them in the wake of communication to acquire knowledge current in the community. Consequently, (...) generality for a communicative act becomes established as the final goal of communication. Generality overcomes the vagueness and uncertainty arising from local and partial contingencies of context, and transcends beyond it. Due to communication, people become capable of finally resolving puzzlement, and of establishing their beliefs, with a guidance for their action. (shrink)

This paper specifically deals with the relation between respect and li禮in the Confucian context. Li has both negative and positive sources. On the positive level, ritual propriety enables one to ex...

This article explores how experienced regret and relief evoked in a risky gambling task influence subsequent intertemporal pro-social behavior. We apply a dictator game experiment with delayed rewards to investigate the effect on donating behavior by simultaneously the time delay when the recipient accepts the donation and the emotions experienced by the participant. We examine this effect using a choice titration procedure. The results reveal that independent of the prior experienced emotions, participants’ donations decrease as the time delay rises; the (...) hyperbolic model provides a better explanation of this finding. Significantly, experienced regret impacts the shape of the social discount function with delayed rewards, which is reflected in notably different discount rates. Participants who experienced regret exhibit a lower discount rate than those in the relief condition. Note that this distinct type of generosity differs significantly at the 14-day delay but not at the shortest and longest. It follows that regret can promote future altruism and intertemporal pro-social behavior, depending on the delay. (shrink)

Digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence, brain-computer interfaces technology and big data, enable many firms to innovate their business model. It is clearly an emotional process due to its complex and uncertain nature, and involves individuals’ emotion regulation, yet the current research lacks an effective conversion path from emotion to digital business model innovation. Drawing on theories and research on emotion regulation and business model innovation, we investigate how emotion regulation of entrepreneurs influence digital BMI. Data from 126 new ventures (...) show that entrepreneurs’ reappraisal positively affects digital BMI, while entrepreneurs’ suppression exerts opposite effects on digital BMI. Moreover, we find that environmental dynamism moderates this relationship. The findings explain the emotional complexity in digital technology empowerment, which has implications for the development and design of brain computer interface applications and the literature on emotions and business model innovation. (shrink)

With the rapid development of the Internet and smart phone technology, a large number of short videos are shared through social platforms. Therefore, video content analysis is a very important and popular work in machine learning and artificial intelligence currently. However, it is very difficult to analyze all aspects of video content originally produced by large-scale users. How to screen out bad and illegal content from short videos published by a large number of users, select high-quality videos to share with (...) other users, and improve the quality of video on the distribution platform of the entire user is a top priority. Based on this background, this paper focuses on optimizing video auditing to provide basic features for algorithm judgment, supporting original content and increasing the distribution of new content, and strengthening manual intervention combining algorithm recommendation with manual recommendation. Four major aspects of the artificial training algorithm model discuss the optimization effect of artificial intelligence on the algorithm in order to provide some guidance for the sustainable and healthy development of mobile short video. (shrink)

Aiming at the vulnerability of wireless network, this paper proposed a method of WiFi penetration testing based on Kali Linux which is divided into four stages: preparation, information collection, simulation attack, and reporting. By using the methods of monitoring, scanning, capturing, data analysis, password cracking, fake wireless access point spoofing, and other methods, the WiFi network penetration testing with Kali Linux is processed in the simulation environment. The experimental results show that the method of WiFi network penetration testing with Kali (...) Linux has a good effect on improving the security evaluation of WiFi network. (shrink)