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This study aims to propose a new conforming tax measure based on the work of Badertscher et al. (2019).

This study divides total tax avoidance/management (TM) into nonconforming and conforming portions through a regression. The residual of the regression is treated as the conforming tax measure. In addition, the new conforming tax measure is validated via three approaches. Then, this study examines the moderating effect of nonconforming earnings management (EM) on the relationship between conforming TM and firm performance.

The empirical results show that the model has stronger explanatory power than the model proposed by Badertscher et al. (2019). Additionally, the validation results show that the mean value of the conforming tax measure is lower in quasi-private corporations (financially constrained companies) than in matched public corporations (nonfinancially constrained companies), and firms under high market capital pressure are less motivated to engage in conforming tax practices. Furthermore, nonconforming EM positively moderates the conforming tax–ROA association, implying that nonconforming EM can reduce financial reporting costs resulting from conforming tax practices.

This study contributes to conforming tax research in the following ways. First, this study proposes a new conforming tax measure by substituting the cash book tax difference (BTD) for the BTD in the model of Badertscher et al. (2019) (“BKRW”). Second, this study demonstrates theoretically why the cash BTD should outperform the BTD in computing the BKRW conforming tax measure and confirm this empirically. Third, this study presents a three-way conceptual schema that divides corporations into two groups along each of three tax-relevant dimensions. The group of firms that use both conforming and nonconforming tax strategies have different characteristics compared to the other group. This study also validates the conforming tax measure across the two-group dichotomies.

Reports a study of 1,304 Chinese brand names of ten types of products in China. These brand names are content analyzed following a linguistic approach which the authors developed from their earlier studies. The ten types of brand names are presented in three broad categories representing the three different developing stages of the consumer product industry in China: brands of traditional products (illustrated by matches and spirits), brands of traditional products with current development (illustrated by bicycles, shoes, and toothpastes), and brands of new and modern products (illustrated by cosmetics, soft drinks, washing machines, refrigerators and TV sets). The conclusion drawn from the analysis is that one of the variables in determining how linguistic principles are being applied to Chinese brand naming is the respective stages of development of such products in the context of the Chinese market economy.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a finite volume approach for the simulation of three-dimensional two-phase (polymer melt and air) flow in plastic injection molding which is capable of robustly handling the mesh non-orthogonality and the discontinuities in fluid properties.

The presented numerical method is based on a cell-centered unstructured finite volume discretization with a volume-of-fluid technique for interface capturing. The over-relaxed approach is adopted to handle the non-orthogonality involved in the discretization of the face normal derivatives to enhance the robustness of the solutions on non-orthogonal meshes. A novel interpolation method for the face pressure is derived to address the numerical stability issues resulting from the density and viscosity discontinuities at the melt–air interface. Various test cases are conducted to evaluate the proposed method.

The presented method was shown to be satisfactorily accurate by comparing simulations with analytical and experimental results. Besides, the effectiveness of the proposed face pressure interpolation method was verified by numerical examples of a two-phase flow problem with various density and viscosity ratios. The proposed method was also successfully applied to the simulation of a practical filling case.

The proposed finite volume approach is more tolerant of non-orthogonal meshes and the discontinuities in fluid properties for two-phase flow simulation; therefore, it is valuable for engineers in engineering computations.

Strategic flexibility (SF) has become increasingly important for firms because of the fast changes in the external environment. In line with the practical importance of SF, an emerging research field has developed around it that has attempted to understand the nature of SF and the key relationships. The aim of this study is to unveil the semantic structure of the recent literature on SF and to suggest new promising areas for future research.

The authors conduct a systematic literature review with a bibliographic analysis technique, which allows authors to identify the main recent streams in the literature, as well as offer reflections and suggestions for future research.

The authors uncover three main emerging areas in the research on SF, namely SF as a dynamic capability, the role of knowledge management for SF and the relationship between a firm SF and the external environment. The authors put forward three avenues for future research on SF: Avenue 1. SF, business model innovation (BMI) and other dynamic capabilities (DC), Avenue 2. Digital technologies and SF/organizational agility and Avenue 3. SF and sustainability. Articles included in the special issue entitled “A strategic perspective on flexibility, agility and adaptability in the digital era” contribute to Avenue 2, thus paving the way for filling some of the identified gaps regarding the relationship between SF and digitalization.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first literature review on SF that uses a bibliometric approach to draw conclusions on the findings in the literature. The review contributes to the theoretical understanding of SF by illustrating and explicating core topics that have persisted over time, as well as by presenting three main avenues for further developing authors’ knowledge around SF.

This research paper investigates the theoretical frameworks encompassing a nuanced analysis of the digital divide in the Indian educational context, recognising that it is not merely a matter of technology access but also the ability to effectively use the resource for enhancing learning outcomes. This research provides valuable insights for fostering a more equitable and digitally inclusive learning environment by integrating conceptual insights with empirical evidence. The New Education Policy (NEP), India 2020 firmly emphasises the appropriate integration of technology into the teaching-learning process to develop relevant competencies. The pertinent question is, for India to conquer the second digital divide challenge, is the pace of technology accessibility and skill development sufficient?

The paper is a desk research, using secondary data from the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE+), the Indian Government database of schools. A structured dataset has been created for all years, where states are grouped in descending ranking order of availability of infrastructure and teachers trained. A colour key segregates the States into three zones demonstrating their different levels of performance – high (green), moderate (blue) and low (yellow). The purpose is to identify state/s that have moved from one zone to another and, thereafter, analyse the reasons behind the movement.

Almost all states remained in the same digital resource availability zone for the four years studied, except for a limited few. Despite government interventions through higher budget allocation and targeted policies, growth rates of teacher training in computer usage slowed down post-COVID-19. A high positive correlation between Teachers' training in computer usage and the availability of computer and Internet facilities in schools indicates that an increase in digital infrastructure in schools is highly linked to teachers' training in computer usage and would ultimately translate into better use of digital resources to impart equitable education opportunities.

Primary data collection through interviews might have added to the critical findings. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further on a case-by-case basis for any state under consideration.

Enhancing digital infrastructure in schools and building digital competence in teachers must be understood in the context of the learning organisation and the beneficiaries' attitudes at the meso-level to expand stakeholder motivation towards digital internalisation. This requires continuous engagement with education institutions as professional learning organisations, which will thereby help develop a decentralised context for teacher competency building. Collaboration, continuous monitoring of the outcomes of professional development programs, and sharing best practices are crucial in improving teacher readiness for digital education.

Access to tangible resources, such as computers, Internet connectivity and educational software, and developing intangible resources, such as teacher digital competencies, will play a pivotal role in shaping students' learning experiences. By studying the discrepancies in digital resource accessibility and teacher technology adoption, this research endeavours to add to the efforts towards enhancing the educational landscape.

This paper seeks to address a critical issue in the Indian education system and contribute to the ongoing effort to prevent the widening of the second and third digital divide in schools, and help achieve UN SDG Goals 4 and 10.

This is the third of a series of studies on Chinese brand naming using content analysis from a linguistic perspective. The first study generalized the principles guiding Chinese brands in terms of syllable pattern, tone pattern, compounding structure and semantic preference. The second looked at specific branding rules, focusing on two entirely different products: cosmetic products and bicycles. The present study, following the same linguistic framework of analysis, analyzes three groups of closely related products: spirits, beers, soft drinks, to see how these brands are creatively and distinctively constructed. Finds that the brand naming patterns of the three drinks are basically in agreement with the general Chinese branding principles, and the differences among them directly reflect the development, the consumer markets and characteristics of each product.

This chapter examines the changing state–university–student relationships in post/socialist China since the late 1980s. We begin with an introduction to four salient themes in scholarship on Chinese post/socialism that are highly relevant to higher education: globalization, gradualism, civic society, and a critique of holism. These themes help us explain interrelated educational trends that affect the state–university–student relationship: the globalization, “massification,” and stratification of higher education; the redefined role of the state in university governance and management; higher education marketization and privatization; and the quest for meaning and (e)quality in and through higher education. Our general argument is that during the “socialist” period the main relationship central to higher learning was between the state and students. Universities were agents of the state; from a legal point of view, indeed, universities did not have an independent status from the state. In the “post-socialist” era the university–student relationship has become more significant. We examine this reconfiguration through two case studies, one on the development of college student grievance and rights consciousness, and the other on reforms in higher education student services administration. When looked at from the point of view of the state, we see that appropriation and implementation of policies and regulations shaping student rights and services are in partial contradiction with state policies to accelerate economic growth and bolster party authority. From the point of view of universities, we see institutions grappling with how to deliver on forward-looking structures and actions while navigating between the state's policy mandates and growing expectations and demands of its student and business stakeholders. From the point of view of students, we see how constrained agency, uncertainty, and the power of the credential motivates social praxis. At all levels of the state–institution–student relationship actors are employing a kind of pragmatic improvisation (one of the salient features of post/socialism) captured by the well-known Chinese proverb “groping for stones to cross the river.” This saying is an apt metaphor for the tentative searching by state, institution, and individual for a safe foothold in the post/socialist world.

International business, environmental issues along with economic growth are the three of the most important aspects of development economics. One cannot deny the fact that a nation, in modern globalized world, cannot achieve high growth without getting into trade with rest of the world as well as without hurting the environment. Nations should not forget the fact that we are in the process of achieving Sustainable Development Goals which we have imposed upon ourselves for the sake of a safe world. BRICS nations are five such nations which not only account for more than 30% of the world's output but also have around 41% population. These features coupled with high growth rates of these nations make them the emerging economies with high chances to dominate the world economy in nearing decades. In this study, by the help of simultaneous equation model and panel data analysis, we have seen how far these three important issues are influenced by one another and related variables in these five nations. We have found that both gross domestic product (GDP) and trade-related variables have been influential upon one another. But these variables getting influenced by emission as well as influencing emission are areas of worries. Good economic growth coupled with safe environment in a globalized world is what we desire for which BRICS economies need to implement certain policies that would ensure their dominance in the world economy and save the environment.

According to the current body of literature published, the outbreak of coronavirus is estimated to have an immense influence both on the supply and demand sides of the tourism industry. The lockdown and the risk of disease has in/directly forced consumers to respond to their regular life patterns in general and consumption patterns in tourism, travel and hospitality operations in particular. Consumers have mostly begun using online shopping platforms for varying reasons, and online platforms have become a great opportunity for businesses to transform their regular operations and collect the individualized data of consumers across the globe. On the other hand, the service providers have had a short break in their operations by thinking about different ways on how to respond to possible changes both in production and consumption patterns. For instance, passengers, particularly those who are elderly and less risk aversive, are less likely to board on flights and take cruise tours in the short term. Using own cars instead of benefiting from car rental services, on the other hand, have appeared to be an alternative way of travelling to short-haul destinations. As a result, this chapter aims to provide a generic discussion of how the coronavirus is likely to influence the services operated by the aviation industry. The chapter, to a greater extent, benefits from the results of existing conceptual/empirical studies, media news as well as the reports of various international organizations such as UNWTO and IATA.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic unprecedentedly shocks the market. Little is known about the impact of COVID-19 on brand engagement across country-of-origin (COO) and country-of-market (COM). To address the gap, this study examines how the spread of the COVID-19 affects consumer brand engagement on social media for global brands through the mechanisms of the COO and consumer animosity.

The authors collect consumer engagement activity data from Facebook for eight global smartphone brands and match it with the COVID-19 statistics. Ordinary least square (OLS) models are used to estimate the impact on global brands brought by the spread of the COVID-19.

The results show that consumer brand engagement decreases for all brands in a COM as the number of confirmed COVID-19 new cases increases in the COM. Consumer brand engagement decreases for a brand across all COM as the number of confirmed COVID-19 new cases increases in the brand’s COO. If a brand’s COO is imputed for the pandemic, its consumer brand engagement will receive additional negative impacts across all COM.

This study enriches the COO literature by showing how the spread of a pandemic affects consumer brand engagement via COO and discovers the moderating role of consumer animosity.