Empirical Test Research Articles

Waste separation behavior in Iran: an empirical test of the theory of planned behavior using SEM

Waste separation behavior in Iran: an empirical test of the theory of planned behavior using SEM

Research on the impact of digital transformation on the production efficiency of manufacturing enterprises: Institution-based analysis of the threshold effect

Digital transformation is the core strategic orientation in the digital economy era and is evolving into a pivotal competitive advantage among countries, industries and enterprises. Based on the analysis of its mechanism, this paper focuses on the data of A-share listed manufacturing enterprises in China from 2011 to 2021; measures and analyses the variables relating to the impact of digital transformation on the production efficiency of manufacturing enterprises; and conducts empirical tests. The research shows that digital transformation plays a significant role in promoting the production efficiency of manufacturing enterprises, and the promotion effect is more obvious for high-tech enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises than for non-high-tech enterprises and state-owned enterprises; digital transformation has a greater promotional effect on the production efficiency of manufacturing enterprises with formal institutions or informal institutions switching from low value intervals to high value intervals. Accordingly, this paper proposes accelerating the digital transformation process of manufacturing enterprises and adopting targeted policies in accordance with the principle of resource endowment. Moreover, from the perspective of institutional environment optimization in digital transformation, this paper proposes building a proper formal institutional environment and strengthening the construction of informal institutions. Our study provides new ideas for constructing enterprise digital transformation indicators. We also offer new insights into the different institutional levels of the effect of digital transformation.

Understanding Competition in Social Space: Religious Congregations in Manhattan, 1949 to 1999

Competition between social units has long been central to sociological theories of change. Understanding it has become particularly important in the sociology of religion with the theory of religious economies, a market model of religious change. Existing empirical tests of the theory are limited by (1) ambiguity regarding which religious groups are expected to compete with which other groups, and/or (2) a neglect of the local level (competition among congregations). Using an original compilation of the life histories of religious congregations in Manhattan from 1949 to 1999, I conduct event-history analyses that avoid those limitations. The chief results are the following: (1) the more congregations there were near a given congregation that were theologically dissimilar to that congregation, the less likely that congregation was to advertise; (2) when there was an increase over time in the number of nearby congregations that were theologically similar to the focal congregation, that congregation became more likely to advertise; and (3) when there was an increase over time in the number of nearby congregations that were theologically dissimilar to the focal congregation, that congregation became less likely to advertise. Implications for the study of religion include modifications of religious-economies theory; broader implications speak to understanding the social units that compete and what drives competition.

Option compensation, dynamic investment and capital structure

AbstractWe develop a dynamic trade‐off model of managerial discretion to investigate how stock option compensation relates to managers' intertwined capital structure and dynamic investment decisions. Our model predicts that option grants provide managers with incentives to undertake both current and future investments, in sharp contrast to the effects of stock compensation. With an increase in option compensation, managers in low‐ (high‐) risk firms tend to increase (decrease) firm leverage, while the opposite is true when stock pay increases. This result offers an innovative prospective on the empirical tests of the relationship between option compensation and capital structure.

A concerted experimental and numerical approach for frequency based non-destructive analysis of Bi-directional cracked laminated composite beams

ABSTRACT The effects of single and multiple transverse open cracks on the dynamic properties of woven fibre laminated composite beam (LCB) under free vibration by experimental and numerical approaches are explored in this research work. The experimental modal testing is performed n laminated glass/epoxy composite beams using vibration Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) analyser system. The finite element simulation software ABAQUS is used as the platform for numerical modal analysis to arrive at the natural frequencies. Within the test domain of modal analysis, the simulated results are finely agreed with the empirical test results. The effects of crack location, relative crack depth, boundary conditions and fibre orientations on the modal frequency of the cracked LCB are explored under free vibration. The results of the study conclude that the maximum decrease in frequencies is observed for 0° ply oriented single and multi-cracked LCB. Furthermore, the results elicit that the presence of crack positioned nearer to the restrained end exhibits more reduction in vibration frequencies for any particular crack depth. Within the frequency domain, the present research approach can be employed as an effective tool for the detection and analysis of crack or crack-like defects in LCB structures in any applied field of engineering.

Social and economic determinants of electoral behavior in Turkey

PurposeIn this study the authors aim to comprehensively investigate the determinants of voting behavior in Turkey, with a specific focus on the dynamics of the center-periphery debate. Mainly, the authors focus on regional voting patterns during the period that is dominated by the Justice and Development Party (JDP/AKP) in the elections. The authors apply the random effects generalized least squares (GLS) methodology, and analyze electoral data covering four pivotal parliamentary elections (2007, 2011, 2015 and 2018) across all 81 provinces (NUTS III regions). The authors individually examine voting dynamics of the four major parties in parliament: the JDP/AKP, the Republican People's Party (RPP/CHP), the Nationalist Movement Party (NMP/MHP) and the Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP/HDP). The authors contribute to a comprehensive understanding of how socioeconomic cleavages, economic performance, party alignment and social dynamics shape voter preferences in the Turkish context, thereby addressing gaps in the existing literature.Design/methodology/approachThis research employs an ecological study of Turkish NUTS III sub-regions, covering national elections from 2007 to 2018. The authors utilize the random effects GLS method to account for heteroscedasticity and time effects. The inclusion of the June and November 2015 elections enables a comprehensive analysis of the evolving dynamics in Turkish voting behavior. The results remain robust when applying pooled OLS and fixed effect OLS techniques for control.FindingsThe study's findings reveal that economic performance, specifically economic growth, plays a pivotal role in the sustained dominance of the JDP/AKP party. Voters closely associate JDP preference with economic growth, resulting in higher voting shares during periods of economic prosperity. Along with economic growth; share of agriculture in regions' GDP, female illiteracy rate, old population rate, net domestic migration, terrorism and party alignment are also influential factors in the Turkish case. Furthermore, differences among sociocultural groups, and East–West dichotomy seem to be important factors that reveal the impact of social cleavages to understand electoral choice in Turkey.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the existing literature by offering a comprehensive multidimensional analysis of electoral behavior in Turkey, focusing on the JDP/AKP dominance period. The main contribution of this study is its multidimensional perspective on the power bases of all main parties, considering key voter choice theories (cleavages, party alignment and retrospective economic performance voting) that have not been systematically analyzed in prior research. The main research question of this study is to examine which factors affect voting behavior in Turkey and how the dynamics of center-periphery or eastern-western region voting behavior under the JDP hegemony can be explained. The contribution of this study consists not only in its empirical testing of panel data approaches but also in its comprehensive analysis of four major political parties. Building upon existing studies in the literature, this research seeks to extend the understanding of voting dynamics for the four main parties in the parliament — JDP/AKP, RPP/CHP, NMP/MHP and PPDP/HDP — by delving into their dynamics individually, thereby expanding the scope of previous studies. This study aims to make a contribution by not only empirically testing panel data approaches but also conducting a comprehensive analysis of four major political parties. Furthermore, the separate inclusion of the 2015 elections and utilization of a panel data approach enrich the analysis by capturing the evolving dynamics of Turkish voting behavior. The study underscores the significance of socioeconomic factors, economic performance and social cleavages for voters' choices within the context of a dominant party rule.

Examining the Moderating Role of Reasons in Masstige Luxury Buying Behavior.

This study proposes a new model derived from Behavioral Reasoning Theory (BRT) to examine the purchasing behavior of masstige jewelry consumers. The suggested model provides a more comprehensive understanding of the determinants of purchasing masstige products by considering values and reasons in addition to the global motives and intention. The study also examines, for the first time, the moderating role of reasons. It explores how reasons may strengthen or weaken the impact of perceived values on global motives. The proposed model was empirically tested using partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with survey data on the consumption of masstige jewelry brands in Türkiye. To provide a more complete understanding of the moderating role of reasons, submodels were constructed for different value-reason combinations. The results demonstrate notable differences in the goodness-of-fit measures between the moderated and non-moderated models. Specifically, reasons contributed to enhanced explanations of global motives and intention, both directly and indirectly. However, not all submodels yielded significant results in terms of the moderator effect. Thus, the empirical tests supported the hypotheses regarding the moderating effect only partially. Overall, the current findings further extend the existing frameworks and provide valuable insights into masstige jewelry purchasing behavior, which can be used by marketers to develop more effective strategies.

The Clade Replacement Theory: a framework to study age-dependent extinction.

There is no scientific consensus about whether and how species' evolutionary age, or the elapsed time since their origination, might affect their probability of going extinct. Different age-dependent extinction (ADE) patterns have been proposed in theoretical and empirical studies, while the existence of a consistent and universal pattern across the tree of life remains debated. If evolutionary age predicts species extinction probability, then the study of ADE should comprise the elapsed time and the ecological process acting on species from their origin to their extinction or to the present for extant species. Additionally, given that closely related species share traits associated with fitness, evolutionary proximity could generate similar ADE patterns. Considering the historical context and extinction selectivity based on evolutionary relatedness, we build on previous theoretical work to formalize the Clade Replacement Theory (CRT) as a framework that considers the ecological and evolutionary aspects of species age and extinction probability to produce testable predictions on ADE patterns. CRT's domain is the diversification dynamics of two or more clades competing for environmental space throughout time, and its propositions or derived hypotheses are as follows: (i) incumbency effects by an early arriving clade that limit the colonization and the diversification of a younger clade leading to a negative ADE scenario (younger species more prone to extinction than older ones) and (ii) an ecological shift triggered by an environmental change that imposes a new selective regime over the environmental space and leads to a positive ADE scenario (extinction probability increasing with age). From these propositions, we developed the prediction that the ADE scenario would be defined by whether an ecological shift happens or not. We discuss how the CRT could be tested with empirical data and provide examples where it could be applied. We hope this article will provide a common ground to unify results from different fields and foster new empirical tests of the mechanisms derived here while providing insights into CRT theoretical structuration.

Research on spatial-temporal heterogeneity of driving factors of green innovation efficiency in Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration—empirical test based on the Geographically Weighted Regression model

Firstly, based on the data of 40 cities in the Yangtze River Delta from 2010 to 2019, the paper uses the Unexpected Super-SBM model to estimate the green innovation efficiency of each city. On this basis, the paper establishes a Geographically Weighted Regression model to explore the spatial-temporal heterogeneity of the effects of influencing factors on green innovation efficiency. The findings indicate that: The direction and strength of each influencing element on the green innovation efficiency of the Yangtze River Delta cities are varied at the urban spatial scale. The degree of opening up significantly boosts the green innovation efficiency, but the impact intensity shows spatial differences. The green innovation efficiency is promoted by government technology support, but its intensity tends to weaken. In addition, financial support has a negative impact on most cities. Over time, the impact of economic development level on urban green innovation efficiency has changed from inhibition to promotion, and the impact intensity tends to weaken. Industrial structure and environmental regulation tend to show two effects of promotion and obstruction in different cities from weak inhibition. Industrial structure and environmental regulation tend to show two effects of promotion and obstruction in different cities from weak inhibition. The research conclusion of this paper has important theoretical significance and practical value for accelerating the construction of a green, low-carbon and circular economic system in the Yangtze River Delta region, and achieving the “dual carbon” goal.

Glyphosate Disorders Soil Enchytraeid Gut Microbiota and Increases Its Antibiotic Resistance Risk.

Pesticides promote the stable development of intensive global agriculture. Nevertheless, their residues in the soil can cause ecological and human health risks. Glyphosate is a popular herbicide and is generally thought to be ecologically safe and nontoxic, but this conclusion has been questioned. Herein, we investigated the interaction among soil fauna (Enchytraeus crypticus) exposed to glyphosate and found that glyphosate induced oxidative stress and detoxification responses in E. crypticus and disturbed their lipid metabolism and digestive systems. We further demonstrated that glyphosate disordered the gut microbiota of E. crypticus and increased the abundance of resistance determinants with significant human health risks. Empirical tests and structural equation models were then used to confirm that glyphosate could cause E. crypticus to generate reactive oxygen species, indirectly interfering with their gut microbiota. Our study provides important implications for deciphering the mechanisms of the ecotoxicity of pesticides under the challenge of worldwide pesticide contamination.

China's carbon emissions trading system and energy directed technical change

Energy directed technical change is an effective means of reconciling economic growth with, not only currently available resources, but also sustainable environmental needs. Whether a carbon emissions trading system (ETS) can internalize carbon dioxide emissions costs, and thus induce energy directed technical change, is a common topic of concern among both political and academic circles. Our study aims to provide evidence for this issue by examining the impact of China's carbon ETS on the energy directed technical change. By adopting a DID estimation approach, we find that the carbon ETS can significantly promote technical change towards clean energy after empirical testing and this conclusion holds up following several robustness tests. This directed effect is realized through a price inhibition effect and a market scale expansion effect; the mechanism test suggest that the market scale expansion effect plays a larger role than the price suppression effect. Lastly, the more significant effect in both non resource-based cities and in large cities suggests that a carbon ETS exerts a heterogeneous effect on energy directed technical change. In addition, the existence of paid auctions of carbon allowances can better induce technical change in favor of clean energy than the free distribution of carbon allowances.

Close actions speak louder than distant words? The effect of local parties on voter turnout in Swedish local elections 1994–2018

ABSTRACT Does the presence of local political parties increase turnout in municipal elections? A handful of previous studies have found that local parties indeed have this effect. Against that backdrop, we examine the impact of the rapid growth in the number of local parties on voter turnout in Swedish local elections. We test the so-called “best of both worlds” hypothesis, which predicts that the presence of local parties – alongside lists of local branches of national party organizations – increases choice for the voters, and thereby increases voter turnout. Our empirical tests employ data from seven Swedish local elections between 1994 and 2018. Ultimately, and contrary to findings from other settings, our results suggest that the presence of local parties does not contribute to higher voter turnout in Sweden. We maintain that this most likely is due to Sweden being a tough test for this hypothesis since Sweden has some unique institutional characteristics, such as concurrent elections and high baseline turnout in local elections.

A multi-task transient stability assessment method adapted to topology changes using multi-graph sample and aggregate-attention network

Transient stability assessment (TSA) plays a pivotal role in guiding power grid risk control strategies. However, it faces challenges when dealing with complex multi-graph inputs generated by pre-fault, fault occurrence, and post-fault states. Meanwhile, most previous research studies neglected the assessment of the transient stability level. To address this, we propose a multi-task transient stability assessment (MTTSA) approach. In MTTSA, we introduce a multi-graph sample and aggregate-attention network (GraphSAGE-A) designed to capture stability features even amidst topology changes. A multi-head attention mechanism and local normalization method are adopted for a better extraction of the global and contextual information. Additionally, we introduce a quantified transient stability risk index considering the transient stability boundary and incorporate a multi-task dense structure to enhance MTTSA’s performance. Empirical tests, under changing operating conditions, conducted on the IEEE 39-bus system showcase a significant performance improvement with the proposed MTTSA method.

How does technological complexity affect manufacturers' innovation? Based on the perspective of vertical separation structure

PurposeComplex technology not only provides potential economic benefits but also increases the difficulty of application. Whether and how upstream technological complexity affects downstream manufacturers' innovation through vertical separation structure is worth discussing, but it has not been effectively discussed.Design/methodology/approachThrough theoretical analysis and empirical testing, this article discusses the cost effect and market competition effect caused by upstream technological complexity on downstream manufacturers and further elucidates the impact of upstream technological complexity on downstream manufacturers' innovation.FindingsResearch has found that the impact of upstream technological complexity on the downstream manufacturers' innovation depends on the cost effect and market competition effect. The cost effect caused by the complexity of upstream technology inhibits the innovation of downstream manufacturers. In contrast, the market competition effect promotes the innovation of downstream manufacturers. There are differences in the cost effect and market competition effect of upstream technological complexity on different types of downstream manufacturers, so there is also significant heterogeneity in the impact of upstream technological complexity on innovation of different types of downstream manufacturers.Originality/valueThe conclusions of this article improve the understanding of the relationship between upstream technological complexity and downstream innovation and provide helpful implications for industrial chain innovation.

Emergence of a multilocus mutator genotype in mutator Escherichia coli experimental populations under repeated lethal selection.

Mutator alleles, which confer increased mutation rates, are known to spontaneously emerge and "hitchhike" to fixation in evolving asexual populations. Theory predicts that in an evolving asexual mutator population, a second mutator allele may spontaneously arise and hitchhike to fixation. Here, we describe an empirical test of the hypothesis of repeated hitchhiking. The starting population was a clonal strain of mutL-Escherichia coli whose mutation rate was 100-fold higher than wild type. We exposed the mutL- strain to a series of three antibiotics in increasing order of selective strength: fosfomycin, rifampicin, and streptomycin. Two independent replicates of the experiment were performed. As predicted, elevated mutation rates and enrichment for multilocus mutators (which bear more than one mutator allele) were observed in the end point populations of both experiments. DNA sequencing revealed an identical spontaneous 1-bp insertion in the mutator gene mutT in both end point populations. In the multilocus mutators, the causal relationship between the mutT- mutations and the increase in mutation rate was supported with mutT+ plasmid complementation tests. Surprisingly, when the experiment was repeated with the antibiotics deployed in decreasing order of selective strength, enrichment for multilocus mutators was not observed. Our data support the likelihood that the mutT- mutations rose to fixation in both populations, consistent with the hypothesis of repeated mutator hitchhiking. The escalation of mutation rates in asexual populations is relevant to multiple biological scenarios, including antibiotic resistance, host-pathogen interactions, and carcinogenesis.

The impact of climate change on credit risk of rural financial institutions: A threshold effect based on agricultural insurance

Climate change affects the stability of the rural financial system. This paper uses the multi-agent model to deduce the impact mechanism of climate change on the credit risk of rural financial institutions, and conducts a series of empirical tests. The results show that: (i) climate change has an adverse impact on the credit risk of rural financial institutions. (ii) agricultural insurance shows a threshold effect in the process of climate change affecting the credit risk of rural financial institutions. (iii) high-level agricultural insurance can mitigate the adverse impact of climate change on the credit risk of rural financial institutions. It reveals that the agricultural insurance is a crucial policy for taking precautions.

Understanding mHealth Adoption and Lifestyle Improvement: An Empirical Test of the Antecedents and Mediating Mechanisms

The potential of using mobile phones for health care service delivery has been well acknowledged. Despite that mobile health (mHealth) related research has proliferated in the past decade, mHealth is still in the fledgling stage with a low adoption rate. There is a research gap in understanding factors influencing mHealth adoption and examining the effects of mHealth use on health outcomes. The purpose of this study was thus to explore influential factors of mHealth use, and test mediation pathways through which mHealth use impacts healthy lifestyle behaviors (e.g. sleep, exercise, and social participation). Survey results from 432 online participants illustrate that performance expectancy, social influence, support conditions, and perceived reliability were significantly associated with mHealth use. However, the impact of effort expectancy on mHealth use was statistically nonsignificant. Moreover, the results indicate that mHealth use can not only contribute to the improvement of healthy lifestyle behaviors directly but also exert an impact through the mediating effect of health competence. Knowing what factors motivate people’s mHealth use and how mHealth use contributes to lifestyle improvement can help trigger interventions to boost mHealth adoption and improve public health. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Optimizing extractants selection for efficient separation of phenols and nitrogen-containing heteroaromatics using hydrogen bond interaction strategies

Optimizing extractants selection for efficient separation of phenols and nitrogen-containing heteroaromatics using hydrogen bond interaction strategies

Disease and development—The predicted mortality instrument revisited

AbstractThis paper revisits Acemoglu‐Johnson the predicted mortality instrument. Drawing on a unique historical data set of disease‐specific mortality rates, we reconstruct several versions of the instrument that differ in terms of data usage and instrument relevance. Our findings confirm its predictive power on life expectancy. The replication analysis reveals a significant positive second‐stage effect of life expectancy on population and total birth rates and a negative effect on GDP per capita for a subset of the revised instruments. Overall, data coverage and empirical tests suggest the superiority of our country‐level instrument.

Organizational ambidexterity, open innovation and innovation outputs: How do followers and low-flyer EU countries innovate?

This study analyses the role played by organizational ambidexterity and open innovation in innovation outputs, considering business units with different levels of technological intensity (medium-high and high tech, and medium-low and low tech) for countries with different innovation profiles. The countries considered in this paper are i) Estonia and Slovenia as innovation followers; ii) Slovakia, Hungary, Spain, Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal, Norway, and Croatia as moderate innovators; and iii) Bulgaria, Lithuania and Romania as modest innovators. In the empirical approach, the research hypotheses arise from the literature review and are tested using secondary data collected from the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) 2010. The conceptual model is tested using the logistic regression method, which indicates suitable accuracy and reliability for empirical testing purposes. The evidence reveals that for innovation followers, ambidexterity has a greater influence on the practice of eco-innovation, marketing innovation, and product innovation. For moderate innovators, ambidexterity has a greater influence on the practice of product innovation, process innovation, and eco-innovation. Concerning modest innovators, ambidexterity has a greater influence on the practice of product innovation, process innovation, and eco-innovation. With regard to open innovation, for innovation followers, this has a negative influence on product innovation in medium-high and high-tech companies. For moderate innovators, open innovation has a greater influence in process, organizational, and eco-innovation. In the case of modest innovators, open innovation is more significant for innovation outputs in product, organizational, and marketing innovation. Size is not always positively related to innovation outputs.