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With the continuous improvement of public–private partnership (PPP) projects, the participants' value creation goals are not only limited to achieving the basic performance objectives but also to realising value added. However, the effect of traditional contract management on realising the value creation objectives of PPP projects is limited. According to the view of multifunctional contract, joint-contract functions that integrate contract control and flexibility are likely to be effective in enhancing the value creation of PPP projects. This study aims to explore the effects of joint-contract functions on PPP project value creation and relevant influencing mechanism by investigating the mediating effect of in-role behaviour and extra-role behaviour.

After collecting 258 valid questionnaires from PPP professionals in China, this study used structural equation modelling to validate the hypotheses.

Contract control and flexibility can improve PPP project value creation. Specifically, contract control improves the achievement of the basic contract objectives of PPP projects, whereas contract flexibility enhances the achievement of the value-added of PPP projects. Moreover, only in-role behaviour mediates the effect of contract control on value creation. In addition, the mediating effect of extra-role behaviour on the impact of contract flexibility on value creation is stronger than that of in-role behaviour. The mediating effect of in- and extra-role behaviour is mainly reflected in the realisation of basic and value-added performance, respectively.

The findings of this study can help realise value creation in three ways. Firstly, new perspectives for PPP project value creation should be proposed by combining the improvement of contract objectives and the realisation of the participants' implicit demands. Secondly, the effects of different contract functions on value creation should be analysed instead of a single dimension of contractual governance. Thirdly, the mediating effects of different types of cooperation behaviour that may influence the relationship between contractual governance and value creation should be evaluated.

This study verifies the impacts of different contract functions on PPP project value creation. In addition, cooperative behaviour is embedded as a mediating variable, and the mediated transmission path from contract function to cooperative behaviour and further to PPP project value creation is systematically analysed.

This paper draws on the perspective of social networks to examine when 3PLs initiate low-carbon supply chain integration (LCSCI) in decarbonising supply chains.

A questionnaire survey was conducted on a sample of 348 Chinese 3PLs. Stepwise regression was adopted to analyse the data.

It is found that LCSCI has a positive effect on firm performance. From the social network perspective, a larger scope of outsourcing increases 3PLs' embeddedness, which increases their chance of success in initiating LCSCI, especially for 3PLs with higher decarbonisation capabilities. Interestingly, although the pressure from government regulation can also motivate LCSCI, it is less effective for 3PLs with higher decarbonisation capabilities because they can be too embedded in the network to freely adapt to regulations.

This study has investigated 3PL-initiated LCSCI only from the view of 3PLs. A dyadic approach which includes the perception of customers would be desirable.

The results highlight the critical role of 3PLs as supply chain orchestrators in decarbonising supply chains, and the effectiveness of LCSCI as a competitive strategy of 3PLs. Coercive pressures from government regulations are not constraints but resources for 3PLs in initiating LCSCI, especially in markets where the 3PLs have insufficient decarbonisation capabilities.

This study contributes to theories on 3PLs' interorganizational low-carbon initiatives, LCSCI, and the paradox of social networks in supply chains.

With the rapid development of the financial market, stock index futures have been the one of important financial instruments. Predicting stock index futures accurately can bring considerable benefits for investors. However, traditional models do not perform well in stock index futures forecasting. This study put forward a novel hybrid model to improve the predictive accuracy of stock index futures.

This study put forward a multivariate deep learning framework based on extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) for stock index futures price forecasting. First, the original sequences were decomposed into several sub-sequences by variational mode decomposition (VMD), and these sub-sequences were reconstructed by sample entropy (SE). Second, the gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT) was used to rank the feature importance of influential factors, and the top influential factors were chosen for further prediction. Next, reconstructed sequence and the multiple factors screened were input into the bidirectional gate recurring unit (BiGRU) for modeling. Finally, XGBoost was used to integrate the modeling results.

For the sake of examining the robustness of the proposed model, CSI 500 stock index futures, NASDAQ 100 index futures, FTSE 100 index futures and CAC 40 index futures are selected as sample data. The empirical consequences demonstrate that the proposed model can serve as an effective tool for stock index futures prediction. In other words, the proposed model can improve the accuracy of stock index futures.

In this paper, an innovative hybrid model is proposed to enhance the predictive accuracy of stock index futures. Meanwhile, this method can be applied in other financial products prediction to achieve better forecasting results.

This study aims to investigate the impact and mechanism of new energy vehicle (NEV) information sources (IS) on mass consumers' purchase intentions (PIs) in China.

Around 902 valid questionnaires were collected using the questionnaire to analyze the different effects of three types of IS (official, interpersonal and commercial) on mass consumers' PIs. Besides, this study investigates the mechanisms by examining the mediating effect of perceived risk (PR) and the moderating effect of individual differences like age and education level.

The three types of NEV IS stimulate the PI of mass consumers, but there are some differences, with interpersonal information sources (IISs) having the strongest contribution, followed by official information sources (OISs) and commercial information sources (CISs) the least. Meanwhile, PR plays a mediating role in the effect of NEV IS on mass consumers' PIs, and age and education level moderate the influence paths. Specifically, the moderating effect of age mainly works on the negative impact of PR on PI, while education level moderates the influence of IS on PR.

This study contributes to filling the gaps in the current understanding of the role played by NEV IS in shaping consumer preferences and choices. It provides valuable insights for automotive manufacturers, policymakers and marketers to tailor their marketing strategies and improve information dissemination to effectively promote NEV adoption among mass consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the allometric permeation performance in fractal branching channel net driven by capillary pressure and analyze how the geometrical parameters of the branching channel net affect the permeability of the fluid transportation.

An allometric permeation model is proposed based on the fractal theory by considering capillary pressure as the main driven force of fluid permeation.

It is found that the permeability efficiency is a function of fractal dimension, bifurcation number, and number of branching level. Different fluid permeation efficiencies of the channel net can be obtained by changing the three parameters.

The allometric permeation model established provides a better understanding of the permeation mechanism in fractal porous media which could further help with the design of bio-mimetic artificial materials.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the growth behaviours of intermetallic compound (IMC) layers in solid‐liquid interfacial reactions of Sn1.5Cu/Cu in various intensities of high‐magnetic field.

Sn1.5Cu solder was prepared and melted in a vacuum furnace at 873 K and cast into solder bars. Samples were mounted using resin and etched after being carefully polished. Then the IMC layers were observed by using scanning electron microscopy.

The results show that the growth of IMC layers has been accelerated by high‐magnetic field through the comparison of growth kinetics of IMC layers among 0‐2.5 T magnetic filed. IMC grains in high‐magnetic field are much bigger than that in 0 T. By the analyzing of X‐ray diffractometer patterns of IMC layers, it can be found that the orientations of IMC have been changed by magnetic field.

This paper investigates the growth behaviour of IMC layers during the solid‐liquid interfacial reactions of Sn1.5Cu/Cu in a high magnetic field.

This study aims to extend ambidexterity theory from the perspective of organisational learning and examine how process ambidexterity, which comprises operational flexibility and operational routine, responds to environmental uncertainty and ultimately reduces organisational risks.

This study tests the hypotheses by analysing 464 annual reports of 115 listed companies in the Chinese agricultural and food industry using content and secondary data analyses. Four case studies are also provided.

The results show that (1) environmental uncertainty has a positive effect on either operational flexibility or operational routine; (2) both operational flexibility and operational routine have negative effects on organisational risks, supporting the view that process ambidexterity mediates the relationship between environmental uncertainty and organisational risks; and (3) organisational slack plays the role of “double-edged sword” by negatively moderating the effect of environmental uncertainty on operational flexibility and positively moderating the effect of environmental uncertainty on operational routine.

In an uncertain environment, companies are exposed to greater risk. This study contributes to risk management in three ways: first, it extends ambidexterity theory to process management and proposes how process ambidexterity balances operational flexibility and routines. Second, it distinguishes between the different conditions under which flexibility or routines are superior. Third, it explains the mechanisms related to how organisations can resolve environmental uncertainty into risk through process ambidexterity.

The huge demand for fresh goods has stimulated lots of research on the perishable food supply chain. The characteristics of perishable food and the cross-regional transportation have brought many challenges to the operation models of perishable food supply chain. The purpose of this paper is to address these challenges based on the real-time data acquired by the Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

IoT and the modeling of the Supply Hub in Industrial Parks were adopted in the perishable food supply chain.

A conceptual model was established for the IoT-enabled perishable food supply chain with two-echelon supply hubs. The performance of supply chain has improved when implementing the proposed model, as is demonstrated by a case study.

By our model, the supply hubs which act as the dominators of the supply chain can respond to the real-time information captured from the operation processes of an IoT-enabled supply chain, thus to provide public warehousing and logistic services.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how the consistency between objective and perceived environmental uncertainty might affect supply chain flexibilities that cope with supply chain risk.

This study adopted a case study of comparative four companies in order to obtain an in-depth knowledge of the environmental conditions under which the companies implement different types of supply chain risk management (SCRM) strategies: logistics flexibility and relationship flexibility.

The case analysis not only distinguished the different effects of objective and perceived environmental uncertainty on supply chain flexibility, but also established the propositions about the effects of the consistency between objective and perceived environmental uncertainty on logistics flexibility and relationship flexibility in SCRM.

In principle, supply chain flexibility aims to cope with complex and turbulent environments. Yet, empirical findings about the effects of environmental uncertainty on supply chain flexibility are inconclusive. This study addressed this question by differentiating between objective and perceived environmental uncertainty as well as between logistics and relationship supply chain flexibilities.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of characteristic parameters of pits on the mechanical properties and fracture model of cable steel wires.

The tensile test and finite element analysis of steel wires with corrosion damage were carried out. The stress development of corroded steel wire under corrosion morphology was studied by the 3D reverse reconstruction technology. The internal relationship between the stress triaxiality, equivalent plastic strain and pit depth, depth-width ratio of corroded steel wire was discussed.

With the increase of corrosion degree, the neck shrinkage phenomenon of steel wire was not significant, and the crack originated near the pit bottom and expanded to the section inside of specimen. The fiber area of corroded steel wire decreased while the radiation area increased, and the ductile fracture gradually changed to brittle fracture. The pit size significantly changed the triaxial degree and distribution of stress and accelerated the initiation and propagation of internal cracks at the neck shrinkage stage.

The proposed fracture model based on the void growth model could accurately simulate the fracture behavior of steel wires with corrosion damage.