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This study examines how project uncertainties (environmental uncertainty and participant uncertainty) affect guanxi and contractual governance and assesses the mediating role of guanxi governance between project uncertainty and contractual governance.

Data were collected in two stages from Chinese contractors. First, in-depth interviews were conducted with nine construction engineering project practitioners in different contracts as a pilot for questionnaire designing. Second, a cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted with professionals and practitioners of construction enterprises to collect primary data. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test seven hypotheses based on data collected from 198 respondents.

Project environmental uncertainty promotes the use of guanxi governance, while project participant uncertainty hinders it; the relationship between both types of uncertainty and contractual governance is the same as with guanxi governance. Furthermore, guanxi governance promotes contractual governance and partially mediates project environmental uncertainty and contractual governance and a complete mediating role between project participant uncertainty and contractual governance.

As the interviewed samples are mainly from China, the study should be replicated using large representative samples from East Asian countries, such as Japan and South Korea, to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the influence of guanxi governance. Further, while the internal consistency reliability and convergent validity of the questionnaire data in this study align with the standards, a larger sample size would improve the reliability and validity of the research results and better represent the overall work situation of contractors, owners and public policymakers.

The results provide insights into project governance research and have implications for construction practitioners in deploying governance-related resources.

Previous studies have proposed that correctly managing stakeholders with certain attributes can benefit project management; however, robust theoretical elaborations and empirical investigations of this topic have been lacking. The purpose of this study is to empirically test the effects of two stakeholder attributes – contractor-perceived contractor salience and contractor project position – on the criticality of five typical contractor-related risks: risk of (1) injuries and accidents, (2) quality defects, (3) work delays, (4) cost overruns and (5) breaches of contract.

Questionnaire data were collected from 118 Chinese contractor managers. Regression models were run in Mplus 7.11 to test the hypotheses.

The data show that higher contractor-perceived contractor salience and a more supportive contractor project position were both related to lower criticality of contractor-related risks, including risk of (1) injuries and accidents, (2) quality defects, (3) work delays, (4) cost overruns and (5) breaches of contract. Contractor salience also mediated the negative relationship between a supportive contractor project position and the criticality of contractor-related risks.

The authors’ research design is cross-sectional and thus cannot establish causation in the relationships among the studied variables. The single item measure of contractor project position was used for the first time in the present study; thus, its reliability and validity still await more empirical examinations.

The findings advance the understanding of the value of stakeholder management in projects by specifying that prioritizing stakeholders' claims and securing their support for the project reduce the criticality of stakeholder-related risks. By providing empirical evidence from the construction context, the findings also add to knowledge on the instrumental power of stakeholder management in enhancing project risk management performance.

The purpose of this paper is to build a new transformational leadership typology by demonstrating high/low degrees of group- and individual-focused transformational leader behaviors – authentic type (high-high), group-oriented type (high-low) and individual-oriented type (low-high) – and to predict that the three types relate differently to follower responses (intention to sacrifice, cognitive trust of supervisor and affective liking).

This study uses an experimental scenario to generate the maximum levels of between-group variance among the three types. A total of 182 mainland Chinese full-time employees participated in the experiment.

Followers’ intention to sacrifice is equally high under the authentic, group-oriented and individual-oriented types of leadership. In addition, followers’ cognitive trust of supervisor is equally high under the authentic and group-oriented types and the lowest under the individual-oriented type. Finally, followers’ affective liking is equally high under the authentic and individual-oriented types and the lowest for the group-oriented type.

A new transformational leadership typology that combines high and low degrees of group- and individual-focused behaviors is established. Based on this typology, this study shows how the three types distinctively affect followers’ reactions, including intention to sacrifice, cognitive trust of supervisor and affective liking.

The purpose of this paper is to verify the mediating role of commitment between market-oriented organizational culture and international market performance, and to discuss the moderator effect of national institutional environment on this mediating role.

The research design follows a mixed methodology, combining qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. In the first phase, research hypotheses are proposed based on a literature analysis. In the second phase, sample data are collected through interviews and questionnaires sent to domestic contractors in China and South Korea, and a validity analysis of the results is carried out. Correlation and regression analyses are then performed on the valid data to verify hypotheses to prove the existence and influence of mediating effects. Hayes PROCESS Macro is used on the regression results to test the mediating effect of commitment on international project performance and the moderation effect of institutional environment.

The results reveal that the commitment between partners has a mediating effect on the relationship between market culture and international project performance; however, no hierarchy culture is revealed. The mediating effect of commitment is regulated by the institutional environment.

Although the reliability and validity of the questionnaire data in this study are in line with research standards, a larger sample size would improve the reliability of the results. Further, the interviewed samples are mainly from China and South Korea; large representative samples from additional countries, such as Japan, should be considered to gain a fuller understanding and more comprehensive results.

By emphasizing the differences between the two institutional environments of developing and developed countries in East Asia, a theoretical and empirical basis is provided. International construction enterprises in other countries can apply the findings to improve their international market performance in different institutional environments. The findings also provide an empirical reference that international construction enterprises in China and South Korea may use to adjust their organizational cultures and commitments to improve market performance.

This study aimed to improve the financing credit evaluation for small and medium-sized real estate enterprises (SMREEs). A financing credit evaluation model was proposed, and a blockchain-driven financing credit evaluation framework was designed to improve the transparency, credibility and applicability of the financing credit evaluation process.

The design science research methodology was adopted to identify the main steps in constructing the financing credit model and blockchain-driven framework. The fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP)–entropy weighting method (EWM)–set pair analysis (SPA) method was used to design a financing credit evaluation model. Moreover, the proposed framework was validated using data acquired from actual cases.

The results indicate that: (1) the proposed blockchain-driven financing credit evaluation framework can effectively realize a transparent evaluation process compared to the traditional financing credit evaluation system. (2) The proposed model has high effectiveness and can achieve efficient credit ranking, reflect SMREEs' credit status and help improve credit rating.

This study proposes a financing credit evaluation model of SMREEs based on the FAHP–EWM–SPA method. All credit rating data and evaluation process data are immediately stored in the proposed blockchain framework, and the immutable and traceable nature of blockchain enhances trust between nodes, improving the reliability of the financing credit evaluation process and results. In addition, this study partially fulfills the lack of investigations on blockchain adoption for SMREEs' financing credit.

In the process of undertaking overseas construction projects, relational governance has become indispensable for project stakeholders. This study examines how relational governance influences contractors' adaptability to foreign situations and whether such associations are positively moderated by international environmental complexity.

A crosssectional survey methodology was applied to collect primary data through questionnaires sent to domestic contractors in China and South Korea (hereafter Korea). Multiple regression analysis was used to test the effects of four dimensions of relational governance on contractor adaptability. Thereafter, the Chinese and Korean subsamples were tested separately through moderated regression analysis to explore differences in the influence of relational governance on adaptability.

The results showed that quality communication, favor exchange and establishing an emotional relationship significantly and positively affected a contractor’s adaptability. However, there were significant differences between the Chinese and Korean international contractors in terms of the moderating effects of international environment complexity.

East Asian engagement in international development is not limited to China and Korea alone, and the study should be replicated using large representative samples from more countries, such as Japan, to gain a fuller understanding of the influence of relational governance.

The results have great significance for the managers of international contractors in East Asian countries and contribute to the research on relational governance and contractor adaptability.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between safety culture and the organizational identity of safety management system (SMS), in order to provide more awareness of how airline employees perceive organizational identity and safety culture as they successfully implement SMS.

A conceptual path model analysis is tested using data analysis research design.

The findings show that safety culture has been strengthened as the result of the implementation of a SMS. Furthermore, the loyalty factor of organizational identity is found to positively and significantly predict the performance of SMS through safety culture.

This paper is intended to provide some introductory perspectives on how to successfully apply safety culture and the supporting organizational identity for implementing SMS, as well as guidance about the areas in which airlines must improve if they wish to reduce accidents and incidents.

The questionnaire survey is designed to form perceptions of flight crews and helps to maintain a focus on the key persons in aviation safety management.

This study aims to use organizational identification, organizational culture and safety culture as the intervening variables between safety mission statements and safety behavior to survey and model the process of brokering knowledge from the top strategy makers to the workers on assignments. A pilot empirical research initiative was launched to determine the linkage between safety missions and safety behavior in the airline industry.

First, descriptive statistics and independent‐sample t‐tests were used to evaluate the mean, standard deviation (SD) and the relationship between the safety mission statement, organizational identification, organizational culture, safety culture and safety behavior and the respondent's years of working for the sampled airline. In addition, Pearson correlation analysis was used to test the relationships between the five factors. Finally, path analysis was used to examine the direct effects and indirect effects between individual factors.

The findings show that organizational identification and organizational culture are two important intervening variables between the safety mission statement (knowledge brokering) and safety behavior. The results of Pearson correlation analysis indicate that five factors are highly correlated with each other, especially the safety mission statement and organizational identification; organizational culture and safety culture; organizational identification and organizational culture; and safety culture and safety behavior. Besides, the safety mission statement has a negative direct effect on the pilot's safety behavior.

To understand the process of using the safety mission statement to change safety behavior can significantly increase the benefits of brokering knowledge. Furthermore, this study has provided an overview of the flight crews' perceptions on how safety is managed in the aviation industry. Based on the findings, it is concluded that organizations in the various sectors of the airline could do better in managing safety, and in brokering the safety knowledge in the industry. At another level, this study provides an opportunity to explore the validity of causal relationships among different areas.

Focusing on social network services (SNS), the purpose of this paper is to propose a research model to investigate individuals’ SNS usage facilitators and inhibitors from the perspective of individuals’ media system dependency (MSD) and privacy concerns.

The research model will be tested with data collected from online users of Facebook. The survey yielded a total of 403 responses for the data analysis which was conducted by measurement and structural models.

The findings indicate that SNSs members strive for understanding, orientation, and play dependencies which facilitate their satisfaction and social presence, and subsequently fosters their continuance intention toward the SNS. In addition, the members’ privacy concerns decrease satisfaction and social presence online.

First, this study has contributed to the authors’ understanding of an individual’s SNS facilitators and inhibitors from the theoretical perspective (i.e. MSD theory and privacy concerns). Second, satisfaction is a strong antecedent of continuance intention and would dilute the effect of social presence on an individual’s SNS continuance intention.

With the high penetration rate of the Internet and the prevalence of social networking sites (SNSs), the negative emotions caused by stressors on SNS have become an important issue worthy of attention. This study explored the relationship between SNS stressors, negative emotions and prosocial behavior, by employing negative emotions as the mediation role and social support as the moderator.

The samples of this study were Facebook users who have used it constantly in the past six months. An online survey was conducted, from which 547 responses were completed, and 525 were valid, for an effective recovery ratio of 95.98%.

Employing the structural equation model (SEM), the findings show that five paths were supported with a good fit. Negative emotions (anxiety and loneliness) have a moderating effect.

This study contributes to the literature by factors divided by negative emotions of anxiety and loneliness from SNS stressors’ perspectives. In addition, this study provides additional support the moderating effect of social support of anxiety on prosocial behavior.