“Who can I blame and what can I do?”: making sense of psychological contract evaluations between Belgian and Chinese employees

This study explores cultural differences in the sensemaking process of employees following psychological contract evaluations. Data from 20 Belgian and 21 Chinese employees were collected using qualitative methods. An analysis of 94 critical incidents relayed by the employees reveals the attributional, emotional, and behavioral reactions that are triggered by psychological contract under-, exact-, and over-fulfillment. Our findings suggest that supervisors were seen as directly responsible for most of the employees’ psychological contract evaluations. Emotional responses are more complex in the process of attributing responsibility. Behavioral actions are subsequently used to deal with three types of psychological contract evaluations. A number of subtle differences are found between the Belgian and Chinese employees. The results highlight the unfolding and dynamic nature of the psychological contract in cultural comparisons.

Multiple large shareholders and corporate fraud: evidence from China

This study tests the effect of multiple large shareholders on the level of corporate fraud using the data of Chinese listed companies from 2010 to 2018. We find lower probabilities and lower corporate fraud frequencies when there are multiple large shareholders in Chinese listed companies, indicating that their presence plays a supervisory role in internal governance. These results persist after we control for endogeneity. Moreover, the effect of multiple large shareholders on corporate fraud is strengthened with the separation of control right and cash flow right. Further analyses reveal that companies with multiple large shareholders experience considerably reduced information disclosure fraud but no reduction in operating or leader frauds. Additionally, information asymmetry and the capital occupation of controlling shareholders both play a mediating role in the relationship between multiple large shareholders and the level of corporate fraud. This study enriches the literature on the determinants of corporate fraud and the effects of multiple large shareholders. Our findings also provide implications for companies and regulators regarding ways to reduce fraud.

Does the target market affect bank performance? Evidence from the geographic diversification of city commercial banks in China

After the opening up of the banking sector to domestic and foreign capitals which is approved by the Chinese government, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) has permitted city commercial banks to diversify geographically. Since this deregulation in 2006, city commercial banks began to geographically diversify to occupy the market and acquire more financial resources. To examine the causal relationship between geographical diversification and bank performance, we construct an exogenous geographical diversification instrument using the gravity-deregulation model and a policy shock. We find that bank geographical diversification negatively affects bank performance. Moreover, we conduct some mechanism tests in the Chinese context. We find that the target market with several large- and medium-sized banks and a high level of local protectionism in the target market decreases the performance of city commercial banks. Finally, cross-sectional analyses show that the impact of geographical diversification on banks’ performance is more notable among city commercial banks that are younger, and have a lower capital adequacy ratio and a higher non-performing loan ratio.

Impact of dark tetrad personality traits on nascent entrepreneurial behavior: the mediating role of entrepreneurial intention

The impact of negative personality traits on entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial behavior has become a research focus in the field of entrepreneurship. This study aimed to identify the influence of dark tetrad personality traits on the nascent entrepreneurial behavior and the mediating role of entrepreneurial intention. This study used partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the hypotheses on a sample of 347 undergraduate and postgraduate university students from China. The results of this study revealed that narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and sadism have a positive and significant influence on nascent entrepreneurial behavior and entrepreneurial intention, which significantly partially mediates the relationship between dark tetrad and nascent entrepreneurial behavior. The finding of the study implies China’s higher education and policymakers to unlock the hidden potential of its youth. This study contributes to the emerging literature on psychology and entrepreneurship and provides evidence that individuals with a high level of dark tetrad are more likely to be involved in entrepreneurial action.

Critical audit matters and stock price crash risk

Using manually collected data on the number and category of critical audit matters (CAMs) in the period 2016–2017, we investigate the hitherto unexplored questions of whether CAMs affect firm-specific crash risk, how CAMs influence crash risk in the Chinese capital market, and recognize CAMs that contain incremental information. Our findings are as follows: (1) Crash risk decreases after implementing the new audit standard requiring the disclosure of CAMs; (2) CAMs release negative information and change the capital market information environment; (3) only corporate-idiosyncratic CAMs contain incremental information; (4) crash risk is mitigated only by CAMs disclosed by companies with a high shareholding of institutional investors. The main conclusion of our study is a positive assessment of the new audit standard and of CAMs in terms of protecting the interests of investors and strengthening the stability of the capital market to provide a new perspective for supervising the implementation of the new audit standard.

The crowding-out effect of elderly support expenditure on household consumption from the perspective of population aging: evidence from China

The pace of aging in China is accelerating, from the introduction of family planning to the liberalization of the two-child policy, with a growing proportion of families in the 4–2-1 structure. With filial piety in mind, most adult children will live with their elderly parents and share income and expenditure. Concurrently, due to the inadequacy of the social security system, a heavy supplementary burden of supporting the elderly has been placed on adult children. Based on data from the 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017 Chinese Social Survey (CSS) of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), this study analyzes the objective factors affecting household elderly support expenditure using the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation method. It also examines the crowding-out effect of elderly support expenditure on the consumption of different types of households through a panel generalized method of moments (GMM) approach. Finally, the crowding-out effect of elderly support expenditure is discussed in a sub-sample according to the number of households needing to support the elderly aged 60 and above. The empirical results illustrate that there is a crowding-out effect of elderly support expenditure on household consumption, and the magnitude of the crowding-out effect varies for diverse consumption. Our study reveals that the crowding-out effect of elderly support expenditure on core consumption is the largest in a sample with different numbers of elderly persons in families. The empirical results for the sub-sample show that the larger the elderly population, the stronger the crowding-out effect of elderly support expenditure on core consumption and the less pronounced the effect on marginal consumption.

Financial inclusion in China: an overview

Financial inclusion has become an important development strategy in many countries, and related research is increasing. Financial inclusion in China has had significant progress recently. It has gradually formed a unique and sustainable development path with supporting policies and regulations as well as rapid development and application of digital technology. While challenges remain, the experience of Chinese financial inclusion provides valuable lessons and research directions for policymakers and researchers.

Role of authentic leadership and personal mastery in predicting employee creative behavior: a self-determination perspective

Personality dispositions and their role in inducing employee creative behavior are well documented in the literature. However, much is unexplored about the collective and relative contribution of personality orientations and environmental factors in explaining creative behavior. This study used a framework based on self-determination theory (SDT) to measure the combined and relative contribution of personal mastery orientation and authentic leadership in predicting employee creative behavior as mediated by autonomous motivation. A self-reported survey was conducted among software developers working in software houses. The results of the study show that both personal mastery and authentic leadership are significant predictors of employee creative behavior. In addition, autonomous motivation significantly mediates the relationship between personal mastery, authentic leadership, and creative behavior. The findings of the study lend support to the combined effect of personality orientation and environmental factors in predicting employee creative behavior and test the SDT framework’s efficacy in predicting creative behavior.

Resource integration optimization of convenience service platforms adopting dynamic service modes in new retail

This paper analyzes the key issues of resource integration, and proposes a method for solving the problem of achieving efficient resource integration for convenience service platforms that adopt dynamic service modes. This method considers both the service level of collaborative resources under dynamic service modes, and collaborative resources’ satisfaction of service modes in the resource integration. In addition, dominant factors needing the most attention during resource integration under dynamic service modes are excavated. Moreover, a model for resource integration optimization is established, and ant colony algorithm is used to solve the problem. Finally, a case is used to verify the feasibility of the method.

Half-day trading and spillovers

This paper investigates the linkage of returns and volatilities between the United States and Chinese stock markets from January 2010 to March 2020. We use the dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) and asymmetric Baba–Engle–Kraft–Kroner (BEKK) GARCH models to calculate the time-varying correlations of these two markets and examine the return and volatility spillover effects between these two markets. The empirical results show that there are only unidirectional return spillovers from the U.S. stock market to the Chinese stock market. The U.S. stock market has a consistently positive spillover to China’s next day’s morning trading, but its impact on China’s next day’s afternoon trading appears to be insignificant. This finding implies that information in the U.S. stock market impacts the performance of the Chinese stock market differently in distinct semi-day trading. Moreover, with respect to the volatility, there are significant bidirectional spillover effects between these two markets.