• Energy Research

The Chinese electric power industry, including its coal industry and other energy industries that are not efficient, contributes to China’s serious energy shortages and environmental contamination. The governing authority considers energy conservation to be one of the most prominent national targets, and has formulated various plans for decarbonizing the power system. Applying the trans-log cost function, this paper examined the trans-log cost function to analyze the potential inter-factor substitution among energy, capital and labor. We also investigated what role human capital played in energy substitution for the electric power sector during the period from 1981 to 2017. Three key results were derived: (1) energy is price-insensitive, (2) there exists large substitution sustainability between both capital and labor with energy, and (3) human capital input not only enhances the extent of energy substitutability with capital and labor but also is a substitute to energy itself. These findings imply that the liberalization of the electric price mechanism is conducive to lessening energy use and augmenting non-energy intensiveness, and that energy conservation technology could become more sustainable by investing more capital in the electricity sector, thereby achieving a capital–energy substitution and a decrease of CO2 emissions. We further suggest that the priority for the Chinese electric power industry should be to attach more importance to increasing human capital input.

Our study investigates Chinese manufacturing firms listed on both the Shanghai and the Shenzhen Stock Exchanges. These firms follow the pecking order or trade-off theories in their capital structure choices. Using panel data from the Taiwan Economic Journal and quantile regression, we construct three models to compare the two theories. Our first model tests the impact of profitability, tangible asset, firm size, and investment opportunities on leverage; our second model adds the dividend payout ratio to test the robustness of the first model; and our third model tests how leverage, profitability, firm size, and dividend variables affect a firm’s investments. From the results of all the models used in our study, we find a negative relationship between leverage and both profitability and the dividend payout ratio and a positive relationship between leverage and growth in a firm’s investments. We also find a negative relationship between dividends, firm size, and growth in a firm’s investments and a positive relationship between investment capital and profitability. The overall results indicate that the capital structure decisions of Chinese manufacturing firms are best explained by the pecking order theory.

Given the mounting evidence favoring quantitative and qualitative analyses, prompted by easy access to data, mathematical and statistical models have gained a formal appreciation for their role in the analytical apparatus of contemporary research methodologies in all fields [...]

This study proposes a new model by partially combining personality traits (PT) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) attributes to examine the influences of personality characteristics (conscientiousness, openness) and perception of technology (perceived usefulness, perceives ease of use) on e-purchase intention. We use truncate sampling technique and survey questionnaire to target the sample of Taiwanese online consumers and collect data. We find that consciousness (CON) (personality attribute) significantly influences perceived usefulness (PU) (technology perception attributes), perceived ease of use (PEOU) (technology perception attributes) and openness to experience (OPE) (personality attribute). PU, PEOU and OPE have significant impacts on e-purchase intention (INT). PEOU has the strongest positive impact on (INT). In addition, PU, PEOU and OPE combined together mediate the relationship between CON and INT. Further post hoc analysis of the mediation shows that both PU and PEOU are sustainable mediators. However, OPE is not a significant mediator.

The concept of inclusion has moved beyond being a social construct and has received widespread attention from organisational scholars and practitioners due to its varied effects on employee behaviours and sustainable organisational outcomes. This study tests the impact of inclusive leadership on the withdrawal behaviours of employees. Perceived insider status is used as a mediator and distributive justice as a moderator. This study has collected data from nurses, physicians, and paramedics of selected tertiary hospitals in Pakistan. A convenience sampling technique was used to collect data. A total of 264 responses were analysed using the PLS-SEM approach. Results found that inclusive leadership was positively related to perceived insider status and negatively related to employee withdrawal. Perceived insider status mediated the link. The impact of inclusive leadership on perceived insider status was stronger when distributive justice was high. This study offers multiple theoretical and practical implications, as it uses justice theory as a mechanism to explain boundary conditions around the effects of inclusive leadership on employee perceptions of being insiders, managing employee withdrawals, and improving sustainability in employee relations.

This paper examines the market efficiency of oil spot and futures prices by using both mean-variance (MV) and stochastic dominance (SD) approaches. Based on the West Texas Intermediate crude oil data for the sample period 1989-2008, we find no evidence of any MV and SD relationships between oil spot and futures indices. This infers that there is no arbitrage opportunity between these two markets, spot and futures do not dominate one another, investors are indifferent to investing spot or futures, and the spot and futures oil markets are efficient and rational. The empirical findings are robust to each sub-period before and after the crises for different crises, and also to portfolio diversification.

This study examines the relationships among three health status indicators (self-perceived health status, objective health status, and future health risk) and life insurance holdings in 16 European countries. Our results show that households with poor self-perceived health status and high future health risk are less likely to purchase life insurance in the entire sample as well as in the subsample for countries with a national health system (NHS). In non-NHS countries, those households that have high future health risk are less inclined to purchase life insurance. In terms of preferences for types of life insurance policies (term life, whole life, both, or none) in the whole sample, poor self-perceived health status and high future health risk are less inclined to hold only term life insurance policy. In addition, poor self-perceived health status and high future health risk have a negative impact on holdings of both types of life insurance. Our findings reveal that there is no adverse selection problem in the life insurance market, especially in European countries with NHS.