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This paper aims to explore how firms enter or exit B Corp certification faced with the tension between local and B Corp institutions, providing a better understanding of the unique impact of institutional complexity on B Corps' decision-making.

This paper applies multi-case analysis to 20 Chinese firms in various stages of B Corp certification, including eight certified B Corps, six decertified firms and six candidates. The qualitative data was used to code separately for two research questions.

The study findings reveal that: (1) Participants who can obtain expected social and economic benefits by innovating their operational mode to efficiently deal with this tension attempt to continuously pursue B Corp certification. A self-renewal model was developed to show how firms hybridize the two institutional logics; (2) Participants who find it hard to mitigate this tension tend to compromise with the local institution and conform less with the B Corp institution due to high opportunity and accounting costs, low short-term benefits and collective culture.

By highlighting the different responses of firms to institutional complexity, this study contributes to B Corp research, social identity theory and institutional complexity, providing practical implications for B Lab strategies in China.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the characteristics of spatio-temporal dynamics and the evolution of land use change is essential for understanding and assessing the status and transition of ecosystems. Such analysis, when applied to Horqin sandy land, can also provide basic information for appropriate decision-making.

By integrating long time series Landsat imageries and geographic information system (GIS) technology, this paper explored the spatio-temporal dynamics and evolution-induced land use change of the largest sandy land in China from 1983 to 2016. Accurate and consistent land use information and land use change information was first extracted by using the maximum likelihood classifier and the post-classification change detection method, respectively. The spatio-temporal dynamics and evolution were then analyzed using three kinds of index models: the dynamic degree model to analyze the change of regional land resources, the dynamic change transfer matrix and flow direction rate to analyze the change direction, and the barycenter transfer model to analyze the spatial pattern of land use change.

The results indicated that land use in Horqin sandy land during the study period changed dramatically. Vegetation and sandy land showed fluctuating changes, cropland and construction land steadily increased, water body decreased continuously, and the spatial distribution patterns of land use were generally unbalanced. Vegetation, sandy land and cropland were transferred frequently. The amount of vegetation loss was the largest. Water body loss was 473.6 km², which accounted for 41.7 per cent of the total water body. The loss amount of construction land was only 1.0 km². Considerable differences were noted in the rate of gravity center migration among the land use types in different periods, and the overall rate of construction land migration was the smallest. Moreover, the gravity center migration rates of the water body and sandy land were relatively high and were related to the fragile ecological environment of Horqin sandy land.

The results not only confirmed the applicability and effectiveness of the combined method of remote sensing and GIS technology but also revealed notable spatio-temporal dynamics and evolution-induced land use change throughout the different time periods (1983-1990, 1990-2000, 2000-2010, 2010-2014, 2014-2016 and 1983-2016).

Geographical conditions monitoring (GCM) has elicited significant concerns from the Chinese Government and is closely related to the “Digital China” program. This research aims to focus on object-based change detection (OBCD) methods integrating very-high-resolution (VHR) imagery and vector data for GCM.

The main content of this paper is as follows: a multi-resolution segmentation (MRS) algorithm is proposed for obtaining homogeneous and contiguous image objects in two phases; a post-classification comparison (PCC) method based on the nearest neighbor algorithm and an image-object analysis (IOA) technique based on a differential entropy algorithm are used to improve the accuracy of the change detection; and a vector object-based accuracy assessment method is proposed.

Results show that image objects obtained using the MRS algorithm attain the objectives of the “same spectrum within classes” and “different spectrum among classes”. Moreover, the two OBCD methods can detect over 85 per cent of the changed regions. The PCC strategy can obtain the categories of image objects with a high degree of precision. The IOA technique is easy to use and largely automated.

On the basis of the VHR satellite imagery and vector data, the above methods can effectively and accurately provide technical support for GCM implementation.

The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to prepare modified C.I. Pigment Red (PR) 170 to reduce production cost and improve application performance. The structure of the modified pigment was characterised. The colour strength, thermal stability, mobility, aqueous dispersability and ultraviolet (UV) resistance of modified pigments were studied.

Silica fume was added into the diazonium salt solution under acidic condition, followed by the activation to generate new surface. Subsequently, coupling component was dropwise added to the system to form the modified pigments evenly on the surface of silica fume in situ. The structure and properties of the modified pigment were studied by fourier transform infrared spectoscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermal gravity analysis (TG-DTA), UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectra (UV-Vis DRS), and commission internationale de L‘Eclairage (CIE L*a*b*) colour measurements.

The morphology and particle size of the modified pigment were controlled by the modification of the silica fume, and the organic pigment and silica fume formed a core–shell structure. The properties of the modified pigment including colour strength, thermal stability, mobility, aqueous dispensability and UV resistance were improved significantly.

The effect of the amount of silica fume on the thickness of the organic pigment layer and the effect of the thickness of the organic pigment layer on the properties of the modified pigment need to be studied further.

This paper shows a feasible method of the modification of the PR170 with the silica fume, and the modification can improve the properties of the PR170. The use of silica fume to modify organic pigment can realise the reuse of solid waste and reduce the production cost of the organic pigment.

This modification method of the organic pigment is adaptive and it can be adjusted to the modification of other species of the organic pigment.

The modification of the PR170 with the silica fume was carried out in its preparation process, which synchronised the preparation and modification of the organic pigment. The properties of the modified pigment were improved, which were beneficial for their application in inks and coatings.

The ancient town of Lijiang is a representative place of ethnic minorities in China’s southwest border area jointly built by many ethnic groups. Its rich and diversified history, culture and architecture as well as its artistic and spiritual values need to be better retained and explored.

The protection and inheritance of Lijiang’s cultural heritage will be improved through the construction of digital memory resources. To guide Lijiang’s digital memory construction, this study explores strategies of digital memory construction by analyzing four case studies of well-known memory projects from China and America.

From the case studies analysis, factors of digital memory construction were identified and compared. Factors led to the discussion of strategies for constructing the digital memory of Lijiang within its design, construction and service phases.

The ancient town of Lijiang is a famous historical and cultural city in China, and it is also a representative place of ethnic minorities in the border area jointly built by many ethnic groups. The rich culture should be preserved and digitalized to offer better use for the whole nation.

Prefabricated components sustainable supplier (PCSS) selection is critical to the success of prefabricated projects. However, limited studies have addressed the uncertainty and complexities during the selection process, particularly in multi-criterion group decision-making (MCGDM) circumstances. Hence, the research aims to develop a group decision-making model using a modified fuzzy MCGDM approach for PCSS selection under uncertain situation.

The proposed study develops a framework for sorting decisions in PCSS selection by using the hesitant fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (HF-TOPSIS) method. The maximum consistency (MC) model is used to calculate the weights of decision makers (DMs) based on the cardinality and sequence of decision data.

The proposed framework has been successfully applied and illustrated in the case example of CB01 contract section in Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB) megaproject. The results show various complicated decision-making scenarios can be addressed through the proposed approach. The MC model is able to calculate the weights of DMs based on the cardinality and sequence of decision data.

The research contributes to improving accuracy and reliability decision-making processes for PCSS selection, especially under hesitant and fuzzy situations in prefabricated megaprojects.