Large-scale Questionnaire Survey Research Articles

Neighbourhood social capital and political participation in neighbourhood governance: The case of Beijing, China

Determinants of individual participation in neighbourhood public affairs have been subject to growing scholarly interest. Urban scholars have adopted the social capital perspective to understanding both informal forms of civic engagement and formal participation in local politics. However, given the mixed findings from the existing literature, whether the social capital theory applies to understanding neighbourhood political participation in Chinese cities requires further investigation. This paper thus examines, in the context of housing marketization and neighbourhood governance reforms, the extent to which neighbourhood social capital promotes neighbourhood political participation among urban residents in China. Using data from a large-scale questionnaire survey conducted in 2017 in Beijing, China, we conducted statistical analysis and found an overall positive relationship between neighbourhood social capital and voting behaviour in neighbourhood elections. However, not all dimensions of social capital are significant, and the positive effects are more salient in newly-developed neighbourhoods of private governance, but not in traditional neighbourhoods in Beijing. These findings extend the international literature on the social capital theory of neighbourhood political participation with additional evidence from a developing country, while also contributing to an emerging line of inquiry on the determinants of civic engagement in neighbourhood governance in transitional urban China.

Development and Verification of the Wellness Tourism Experience Scale

Wellness tourism is a significant way to improve physical, psychological, and spiritual aspects. However, an appropriate scale for measuring the wellness tourism experience in academic research remains lacking. Most existing research had measured wellness tourism experience using full or part of the well-established tourism experience scales, ignoring the unique context of wellness tourism. Considering these issues, this paper first clarifies the essential connotations of the wellness tourism experience. Then, following the scale development process (literature review, content analysis, expert scoring, and two rounds of large-scale questionnaire surveys), this paper proposes the wellness tourism experience as a multidimensional construct comprising three dimensions, including “regain health,” “escape from stress” and “discover oneself.” This study provides a scientific and reliable measurement tool for further exploration of the antecedents and consequences of the wellness tourism experience.

The attitudes of postgraduate medical students towards the curriculum by degree type: a large-scale questionnaire survey

BackgroundChinese medical schools have offered both professional and academic degrees for postgraduate students. However, there is limited information about the attitudes of professional-degree and academic-degree students. We aimed to examine the attitudes of full-time postgraduate students towards the curriculum, stratified by degree type.MethodsA 29-item online questionnaire was distributed to postgraduate students in West China School of Medicine of Sichuan University in 2020. The questionnaire was designed to collect students’ demographic characteristics, attitudes towards curricular provision and content, and classroom organization. A comparison was made between groups based on degree type (academic degree versus professional degree).ResultsOverall, 645 out of 908 students at West China School of Medicine completed the questionnaire. Comparing with students pursuing academic degrees, professional-degree students were more interested if the curriculum included specialized knowledge and clinical skills, and expressed concerns over the excessive compulsory courses and inadequate optional courses (p < 0.001), particularly prominent among first-year postgraduate students. Besides, a greater proportion of professional-degree students thought the curriculum was conflict with clinical work to some extent, and they also rated taking attendance in class as less reasonable (p < 0.01). Conversely, students pursuing academic degrees expressed that the courses were inadequate in interdisciplinary curriculum and had some crossover or repetition, and they assigned a higher importance rating for the curriculum when comparing professional-degree students (all p < 0.05).ConclusionsDifferent attitudes toward the curriculum are observed between students pursuing professional degrees and those pursuing academic degrees. This study provides benchmark data for future postgraduate course reforms in China.

How to Shape Local Public Acceptance of Not-in-My-Backyard Infrastructures? A Social Cognitive Theory Perspective

Acceptance by the local public is the key determinant for the successful implementation of NIMBY (Not-In-My-Backyard) infrastructures and may be shaped in different ways among different infrastructure types. Based on social cognitive theory (SCT), this study clarifies the specific mechanism shaping local public acceptance of NIMBY facilities with two types of hazardous effects (i.e., pollution and psychological exclusion) using a large-scale questionnaire survey and structural equation model. The results reveal that, firstly, SCT provides a solid theoretical basis for exploring the mechanism under the joint action of environmental and personal factors. Secondly, it is verified that self-efficacy indirectly predicts local public acceptance by influencing perceived risk. The effect of the positive affect tag is mediated by perceived risk in shaping acceptance of polluting facilities but not of psychologically excluded facilities. In general, people tend to have a lower perceived risk, higher perceived benefit, stronger sense of self-efficacy, and more positive attitude when faced with the siting of psychologically excluded NIMBY facilities over polluting ones. These findings are helpful for planning and decision-making of NIMBY facilities with different types of hazardous impacts, reducing NIMBY conflicts and promoting the construction of NIMBY infrastructures. Furthermore, it contributes to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 (promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development) and (SDG) 11 (building inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and human settlements).

An Empirical Study on the Effect of Virtual Influencer Characteristics on Consumer Response

Against the background of the rapid development of computing technology and artificial intelligence technology, virtual influencers generated by computer-generated image technology are rapidly emerging on social media platforms. Due to the potential marketing advantages of virtual influencers themselves, more and more brands are choosing to collaborate with them. However, existing research on virtual influencers is still in the exploratory and initial stage. Therefore, this study is based on the characteristic perspective of virtual influencers, combined with the source credibility theory, to study the impact of virtual influencers’ characteristics on consumer response from three aspects: attractiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness. And introduce influencer-product congruence as a moderating variable to explore the boundary conditions of the virtual influencer mechanism. This study used a large-scale questionnaire survey method to obtain corresponding analysis results through methods such as AMOS, PROCESS, and hierarchical regression. The results of this study enrich existing research on social media influencers and artificial intelligence, and provide policy recommendations for electronic commerce and digital business practices.

Psychological motivations for collectivist behavior: comparison between Japan and the U.S

AbstractThis paper explores the psychological motivations behind collectivist behavior in Japan and the U.S. Using data from a large-scale questionnaire survey, we examine the causes of collectivist behavior (i.e., group conformity) at workplaces and at home. Our key findings are as follows: (i) in Japan, people conform to their groups, both at work and at home, because they consider that cooperation with others will result in greater achievement; (ii) in both Japan and the U.S., people conform to their groups, both at work and at home, because behaving similarly to others makes them feel comfortable; and (iii) in both Japan and the U.S., people conform to their family’s opinion at home because they value cooperation with family members. Our findings suggest that institutional differences between Japan and the U.S. give rise to the differences in psychological motivations for collectivist behavior.

Large-scale questionnaire survey of parents and guardians on antimicrobial resistance using group health checkups for infants and toddlers in Japan

BackgroundIt is important to improve the knowledge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) among parents and guardians, to promote AMR stewardship in pediatrics. However, a large-scale survey on parents' knowledge and awareness of AMR has not yet been conducted in Japan. Furthermore, the current status of knowledge and awareness is unknown. Infant and toddler health checkups are large-scale administrative activities that approximately all children and their parents undergo in Japan. Therefore, we conducted a knowledge and awareness survey using a questionnaire during the group health checkups. MethodsAll parents and guardians who participated in the group health checkups (4-month, 1.5-year, and 3-year) in Chiba City during the year were targeted. Parents' knowledge and awareness of AMR and their wishes for future information on AMR were surveyed using a one-choice questionnaire. ResultsThe questionnaire collection rate was 87.5% (16,663/19,047), and the valid response rate was 77.0% (14,674/19,047). Of the parents, 37.2% answered that "antibiotics are not effective for colds." However, 58.9% answered that they "had never heard of the drug-resistant bacteria."While 8.3% of parents answered that they "sometimes want my child to be prescribed antibiotics even if the doctor deemed it unnecessary," 46.1% of parents answered that "they were unaware of whether their children were prescribed antimicrobials." ConclusionsKnowledge and awareness of AMR among parents in Japan are inadequate, and there is room for improvement. Continuous awareness-raising activities combining multiple methods are needed in the future.

Product-based approach to sustainable plastic management focusing on consumers’ necessity of 50 daily-use products in Japan

In the plastic product lifecycle, consumers are the main stakeholders who purchase, consume, and dispose of plastic products. To be able to take optimal measures to induce changes in consumer behavior to achieve sustainable plastic management, daily-use plastic products should be classified by consumers' necessity. However, consumers' evaluations of the necessity of individual plastic products remain to be examined. Here, we selected 50 plastic products from the Japanese households that are used and disposed of by consumers on a daily basis, and then conducted a large-scale questionnaire survey of 10,000 residents of Japan in which we asked respondents to evaluate the subjective necessity and substitutability of each of the targeted 50 products. To discuss future measures tailored to individual products or groups of similar products, we conducted hierarchical clustering analysis based on the respondents' evaluation of each of the products. The classified seven clusters could be divided into two groups, which were characterized by a low and high necessity for consumers. In the four clusters characterized by a low necessity, most of the products were single-use plastic products and the rate of the options indicating a lack of necessity was more than 44% for each product. In contrast, the other three clusters included plastic containers and packaging, durable products, and products made from synthetic fibers, but few single-use plastic products, and showed a higher response rate of more than 55% for the options indicating necessity. Then we also investigated domestic consumption of each product and obtained the Japanese total consumption of the 50 targeted products as 3.619–4.007 million t per year. As a result of our estimation, if the consumers can stop their use of the unnecessary products or have access to suitable substitutes, millions of tons of products could be eliminated as a maximum reduction potential. Overall, our survey highlighted the importance of classification of plastic products based on the consumers’ necessity and proposed possible targets of policy intervention on future sustainable management in terms of individual plastic products.

The Evolution of Policies, Practical Exploration, and the Current State of Research on the Chinese School District System from the Perspective of the Modernization of Educational Governance

The reform of school district system is an important measure in promoting the high-quality, balanced development of compulsory education, as well as promoting the modernization of regional educational governance systems and governance capabilities. China’s school districts exhibit characteristics differing from Europe and the United States in terms of their functional orientation, management system, and structural configuration. Reforms to the Chinese school district system have been designed from the top down on the level of policies at the national and local level, giving shape to four models on the practical level, including the bundling model, the trusteeship model, the network model, and the expanded model. In existing research, the topic of discussion largely consists of research from the perspective of equity, and in the future, it will be necessary to carry out systematic, in-depth exploration of regional educational governance systems in the context of the school district system on the level of governance, the impact of the school district system on schools’ operational autonomy, as well as the future trends of development of the school district system, and other areas. The existing types of research tend to consist of descriptive research, and in the future, it will be necessary to increase explanatory research based on influencing factors and mechanisms of influence as well as evaluative research based on proposals for reforms. In terms of research methods, in the future, it will be necessary to carry out empirical research based on large-scale questionnaire survey studies as well as qualitative research based on in-depth interviews.

Sex Differences in Patterns of Childhood Traumatic Experiences in Chinese Rural-To-Urban Migrant Children.

Children and adolescents are likely to be exposed to various types of childhood traumatic experiences (CTEs) with gender-specific patterns. Rural-to-urban migrant children have been demonstrated a greater risk of CTE exposure than local children. However, no study has investigated sex differences in the patterns of CTEs and predictive factors among Chinese children. A large-scale questionnaire survey of rural-to-urban migrant children (N = 16,140) was conducted among primary and junior high schools in Beijing. Childhood trauma history, including interpersonal violence, vicarious trauma, accidents and injuries was measured. Demographic variables and social support were also examined. Latent class analysis (LCA) was utilized to examine patterns of childhood trauma, and logistic regression was used to examine predictors. Four classes of CTEs were found among both boys and girls, labeled low trauma exposure, vicarious trauma exposure, domestic violence exposure, and multiple trauma exposure. The possibility of various CTEs in the four CTE patterns was higher among boys than girls. Sex differences also manifested in predictors of childhood trauma patterns. Our findings shed light on sex differences in CTE patterns and predictive factors in Chinese rural-to-urban migrant children, suggesting that trauma history should be considered along with sex, and sex-specific prevention and treatment programs should be developed.

How do patients and families evaluate attitude of psychiatrists in Japan?: quantitative content analysis of open-ended items of patient responses from a large-scale questionnaire survey

BackgroundPatient and Public Involvement (PPI) has been widely advocated in psychiatric fields. In Japan, however, PPI has not been implemented in clinical practice. In order to improve quality of psychiatric service in Japan, it is essential to understand psychiatrists’ attitudes from the patients’ perspective as a first step in practicing PPI. This study aimed to investigate the patients’ evaluation of psychiatrists’ attitudes by illustrating themes appeared in the questionnaire survey.MethodsThis study used the data obtained from the questionnaire survey responded by 2,683 patients with family members who belong to the family associations for psychiatric patients in Japan. Three open-ended question items in this survey, "criteria for selecting a psychiatrist (784 patient responses, response rate 29.2%),” “attitude of the psychiatrist in charge (929 patient responses, response rate 34.6%)," and "communication skills of the psychiatrist in charge (739 patient responses, response rate 27.5%)" were analyzed by co-occurrence network using KH Coder software.ResultsThe common theme observed in all three items was whether psychiatrist took sufficient consultation time. The criteria for selecting a psychiatrist were summarized whether psychiatrist provided appropriate advices for patients’ problems, whether psychiatrist cared about patients’ demands and whether psychiatrist informed to patients about diseases and medications. The attitudes of the psychiatrists in charge that patients had most wanted their psychiatrists to improve were: psychiatrists only watch the computer, make diagnosis according to the patients’ individual condition, and try to build a relationship of trust with the patient. The patients’ demands regarding communication skills of the psychiatrist in charge included: whether the psychiatrist communicated in a way that improves the patient's psychological state, whether the psychiatrist was attentive to the patients’ family, and whether the psychiatrist could control his/her own mood during the consultation.ConclusionThe results reflected the patients’ demands that do not appear in closed-ended items. It was suggested that patients’open-ended responses to questionnaires and their involvement in the psychiatric research (PPI) may provide more insight into improving pshchiaric care in Japan.

Awareness about the Establishment of Clinical Evidence among Community Pharmacists: A Large-scale Survey among Members of the Okayama Pharmaceutical Association

Community pharmacists in Japan participate in many important clinical cases involving drug therapies. This involvement should be researched and widely publicized to promote evidence-based medicine (EBM). However, the awareness level about the establishment of clinical evidence among community pharmacists remains unknown. Therefore, this large-scale questionnaire survey was conducted among members of the Okayama Pharmaceutical Association to clarify the awareness about the establishment of clinical evidence among community pharmacists to determine the major factors affecting their awareness. Questionnaires requiring open-ended responses were developed in Google Forms. Finally, 366 valid answers were obtained and statistically analyzed based on three aspects: academic conference presentation, research article publication, and research conduct. More than 50% of the participants agreed that they must engage in the establishment of clinical evidence. However, they were unwilling to engage in it by themselves. Additionally, the awareness about the establishment of clinical evidence among participants aged <40 years, who underwent a 6-year course, and with presentation experience was greater than that among participants aged ≥40 years, who underwent a 4-year course and without presentation experience. Thus, age, course duration, and presentation experience are important factors influencing awareness about the establishment of clinical evidence. Further, >70% of the participants did not have enough time to engage in the establishment of clinical evidence, suggesting that reducing workload and ensuring adequate time are necessary for such engagements. Our novel findings may increase the establishment of clinical evidence by community pharmacists, improve community pharmacists' social standing, and promote EBM in Japan.

Landscape Preference Evaluation of Old Residential Neighbourhoods: A Case Study in Shi Jiazhuang, Hebei Province, China

Landscape preference and cognition are essential in determining the external environment’s subjective reflections. Although much research has been conducted on landscape preferences, there is still a lack of information on landscape perceptions and preferences among residents of disadvantaged neighbourhoods, especially in Chinese cities. Taking old residential neighbourhoods of Shijiazhuang as an example, this paper used a large-scale questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews to determine the landscape preference of the residents of old residential neighbourhoods for the community green spaces using the virtual model method. The chi-square test method is used to explore the inner logic of aesthetic preference from two aspects: landscape characteristics and socio-demographic characteristics. The respondents are 668 residents of old residential neighbourhoods (300 males, 368 females) distributed in four larger communities in the main urban area of Shijiazhuang. Random sampling and volunteer sampling were used to choose the survey respondents. The results showed this: (1) In terms of soft landscapes, respondents prefer natural planting, spaces with very high plant richness and high green coverage. In terms of hard landscapes, there is a preference for fitness and leisure facilities, rubber floors and a slight preference for water features and decorative landscape elements. (2) From the chi-square results, age significantly affects landscape preference, gender and education level. In contrast, marital status and occupation have no significant effect on landscape preference. The expression of the landscape preference of the residents of old residential neighbourhoods reflects the needs for functionality, reality and local concept. The main aim of this study is to fully understand the landscape preferences of residents in old residential neighbourhoods when using green space, and to find out what factors will affect residents’ landscape preferences. The research results have guiding significance for rationally improving the landscape planning, design and management of old residential neighbourhoods, and at the same time make up for the lack of international research on landscape preferences of disadvantaged communities. Improving the environment of old residential neighbourhoods can develop a higher sense of security, happiness and satisfaction among the residents.

A statistical quantitative analysis of the correlations between socio-demographic characteristics and household occupancy patterns in residential buildings in China

Occupancy patterns that describe occupant presence or absence can result in a significant impact in energy use of residential buildings; thus, they are critical to the energy modeling of residential buildings. Occupancy patterns currently embedded in building energy simulation tools or recommended in the standards are uniform, ignoring that different occupancy patterns exist for households with different socio-demographic characteristics. Consequently, this study objective is to extract the typical occupancy patterns of households and quantify the correlations between household occupancy patterns and socio-demographic characteristics based on statistical approaches. Clustering analysis was used to identify representative types of occupancy patterns based on the occupancy profiles of daily occupant presence data. Then, correlations between occupancy patterns and household characteristics were identified by investigating three statistical methods: nonparametric analysis, decision trees, and association rule mining. To illustrate the quantitative analysis, datasets collected by a large-scale questionnaire survey in two Chinese cities were used for the case study. The results revealed that socio-demographic characteristics, such as occupant age, employment status and household composition, have statistically significantly associated with occupancy patterns. The statistical quantitative analysis can be used to estimate household occupancy patterns to further reduce the performance gap between the simulation and actual energy consumption of residential buildings.

Personal infection prevention behaviors and campaign to encourage travel during COVID-19: A cross-sectional study.

The Go To Travel campaign in Japan was launched to subsidize travel and accommodation costs for tourists through vouchers that could be used at domestic destinations. Infection prevention behavior can lead to refraining from travel owing to infection concerns; conversely, taking preventive action can promote travel. There is a lack of information about the association between infection prevention behaviors and desire to travel. During a pandemic of infection, there is the difficult challenge of balancing the promotion of infection prevention behavior with economic revitalization. Thus, we examined the relationship between personal infection prevention behaviors and using Go To Travel. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 26,637 workers who responded to a large-scale questionnaire survey about COVID-19 in Japan. We built multilevel logistic regression models adjusted for confounders to assess the association between each personal infection prevention behavior and using Go To Travel. We analyzed the seven infection prevention behavior individually: wearing a mask when among other people; disinfecting hands with alcohol before going indoors; washing hands after using the toilet; gargling upon returning home; opening a window to ventilate a room; carrying an alcohol sanitizer; and disinfecting hands after touching objects outside. Among the 26,637 participants, 7,959 (30%) used Go To Travel. For "wearing a mask in the presence of others" and "washing hands after using the toilet," the majority of respondents answered "almost always: 86.5 and 85.6% respectively. Action "carrying alcohol disinfectant" was the least implemented, with 36.9% of respondents saying "almost never." Two of the seven preventive behaviors ("disinfecting hands with alcohol before going indoors" and "carrying alcohol disinfectant") were positively related to using Go To Travel, that is, the more of these actions they took, the more they used Go To Travel (p for trend <0.001). To balance pandemic preparedness with economic preparedness, it is also necessary to promote travel when the infection situation is calm. However, since human mobility can be a factor that exacerbates the infection situation, it is necessary to promote more infection prevention behaviors among individuals. We confirmed that Go To Travel users were basically doing a good infection prevention behaviors, but they tended not to wash their hands after touching things or carry alcohol sanitizer. It is necessary to encourage these measures to be taken when traveling.

The correlation between lifestyle health behaviors, coping style, and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic among college students: Two rounds of a web-based study.

During the last months of 2019, worldwide attention has focused on a pandemic of COVID-19, and the pandemic spread rapidly, becoming a public health emergency of international concern. The Chinese government has quickly taken quarantine measures and the drastic measures incurred to curtail it, which could have harmful consequences for everyone's behavior and mental health. This study aimed to investigate the correlation of influencing factors and mental health symptoms among Chinese college students according to two rounds of surveys during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was divided into two stages of cross-sectional investigation. In February 2020 and May 2020, two cross-sectional surveys were conducted on college students in the above areas by means of cluster sampling. From February 4 to February 12, 2020, 14,789 college students completed the first round of online study from 16 cities and universities in 21 in China, excluding participants who completed the questionnaire, and finally included 11,787 college students. After 3 months, we also conducted a large-scale questionnaire survey based on the first study area to observe the behavioral changes and psychological symptoms of college students within 3 months. Using the convenience sampling method, a survey on the cognitive and psychological status of COVID-19 among college students was conducted in 21 universities in 16 regions in May 2020. The regions among the two surveys are divided into Wuhan (District 1), neighboring Hubei (District 2), first-tier cities, namely, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou (District 3), and other provinces (District 4). (1) In the first survey, the average age of the participants was 20.51 ± 1.88 years. One-third of the college students were male. In total, 25.9 and 17.8% of college students reported depression and anxiety symptoms, respectively. College students, who reported higher ST, lower PA, higher soda beverage and tea beverage intake, have Chinese herbal medicine and vitamin drinking, and decreased frequency of diet had higher depression and anxiety symptoms. Moreover, infection risk, perceived resistance to COVID-19, concerns about physical symptoms, family/friends directly/indirectly contacted with confirmed cases, and seeking psychological counseling had significant associations with anxiety and depression symptoms. (2) In the second round of surveys, 6803 males (41.7%) and 9502 females (58.3%) had a mean age of 20.58 ± 1.81 years. The prevalence of depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms during COVID-19 was 30.7 and 23.9%, respectively. (3) In both surveys, college students who reported having higher ST, lower PA, higher soda beverage and tea beverage intake, Chinese herbal medicine and vitamin drinking, and decreased frequency of diet also had higher depression and anxiety symptoms. Coping styles with COVID-19 partially mediate the association between some related lifestyle behaviors and anxiety and depression. The results of the conditional process model analysis support our hypothesis that lifestyle behaviors, and coping styles are both predictors of anxiety and depression symptoms, with both direct and indirect effects moderated by gender level. In logistic regression analysis, the correlation of depression and anxiety in the second rounds of the survey was higher than that in the first survey. In two surveys, there was a correlation between lifestyle health behaviors and coping style, gender and mental health. Our findings demonstrated that the prevalence of anxiety and depression in the two rounds of surveys was different, and the prevalence in the second round was higher than that in the first round, as well as that in the two rounds of surveys. All survey identified that unhealthy lifestyle behaviors were positively associated with depression and anxiety symptoms. Compared with the emerged city of risk areas, other pandemic regions have a lower risk of mental health problems. The survey findings complement each other. Lifestyle health behaviors and coping style alleviated mental health symptoms. COVID-19-related social stressors were positively associated with mental health symptoms. The study also suggests that at the beginning of the pandemic, the effective management of college students' mental health problems, corresponding coping measures and maintaining a good lifestyle play a key role in the prevention and control of other cities. Understanding the college students' lifestyle behaviors during COVID-19 lockdown will help public health authorities reshape future policies on their nutritional recommendations, in preparation for future pandemics.

Towards an integrative analysis of underground environment and human health: a survey and field measurement approach

PurposeDue to land resource scarcity, sustainable urban development in high-density cities has long been challenging. As such, many cities are formulating plans to “dig deep”, resulting in more citizens working and/or staying underground for longer periods of time. However, owing to the particularities of underground space, the factors involved in the creation of a healthy environment are different from those involved in aboveground developments. This study thus aims to investigate the influences of various underground environment factors on users' health through a holistic approach.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve this aim, 12 underground sites and 12 corresponding aboveground sites are selected for a large-scale questionnaire survey, resulting in 651 survey samples. The survey covers post-occupancy evaluation of health (physical and psychosocial), underground environmental quality (visual, thermal, acoustic comfort, indoor air quality and ventilation), space design and greenery. Independent-sample T-test, Pearson correlation, multiple regression modelling and structural equation modelling are used to investigate whether significant differences exist between health of underground and aboveground users, and to develop an underground environment-health model for unveiling the significant associations between underground environment factors and users' health. To cross validate the results, an objective field measurement study is further conducted on six underground sites. The objective measurement results are used to cross validate the survey results.FindingsThe questionnaire results provide the following evidence: (1) health of underground users is significantly poorer than that of their aboveground counterparts; (2) underground development users' health is significantly affected by space design, greenery and environmental quality in terms of thermal comfort, indoor air quality, ventilation and acoustic comfort but not visual comfort; and (3) amongst the various identified factors, space design has the strongest predicting effects on human health. The field study echoes the survey findings and further unveils the relationships between different environmental factors and human health.Originality/valueThe results shed light on the importance of distinguishing between underground developments and aboveground ones in various guidelines and standards, especially those related to space management.

Innovation subsidies and entrepreneurial activity in an emerging market

PurposeThis study aims to find that entrepreneurial activities can spur entrepreneurial firms' superior performance, but this effect is contingent on the different levels of government innovation subsidies. Extending the institutional perspective explanation and entrepreneurship perspective explanation, this study examines how a firm's entrepreneurial orientation (EO) affects its superior performance when it receives innovation subsidies.Design/methodology/approachEntrepreneurial firms in China, an emerging economy, are taken as the context for empirical evidence. A large-scale questionnaire survey is used for firm data collection. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression is employed to test the hypothesized model using a sample of 287 entrepreneurial firms.FindingsThe results show a curvilinear, inverse U-shaped moderating effect in the relationship between EO and firm performance. This relationship is strongest at intermediate levels of innovation subsidies but is comparatively weaker when innovation subsidies are low or high.Originality/valueThe study contributes to entrepreneurship research by examining the nonlinear moderating effect of innovation subsidies on entrepreneurial firms' performance. The study also contributes to entrepreneurship theory by elaborating on the innovation subsidy scheme and how it facilitates the development of entrepreneurial activity.

Feasibility study of adopting green materials in construction by stake holder‘s perception using ANOVA based quantitative analysis technique

Due to industrial practices and infrastructure-related activities, environmental issues are becoming more prevalent on a global scale. As a result, efforts to identify and develop environmentally friendly materials and technologies are picking up steam. The future of construction calls for environmentally friendly, readily available, robust, maintainable, and adaptable building materials. When it comes to building construction, it's common to use green materials because they have many or all of these characteristics: Fire Resistant; Lightweight; Economical; High Quality; Earthquake Resistant; Low Carbon Footprints; Fast Installation; and so on. As a solution to this problem, a research effort was launched with some materials, including Plastics Waste, Marble Dust, Fly Ash and LTC-Light Transmitting Concrete and their own associated parameters. In the first stage of the investigation, a questionnaire was distributed to diverse participants in order to learn about their perspectives on environmentally friendly materials. There was a large-scale questionnaire survey, as well as ANOVA-based quantitative analysis, that were performed on the data. Respondents are more likely to use materials such as GFRG panels, plastic waste, AAC blocks, and fly ash, among others, because of their familiarity with these options. To achieve sustainable development in building construction, it is possible to use green materials that are readily available in the market at a lower cost and with a high degree of workability, according to the findings of the study.

An Interwoven Psychological Syndrome of Job Burnout and Work Engagement in Construction Project Management Professionals Due to Work-Family Imbalance.

Most current studies on the mental health of construction project management professionals (CPMPs) are conducted from a negative psychological perspective, lacking a comprehensive understanding of the positive-negative interwoven mechanism. This study developed a positive-negative dual-process psychological model of CPMPs to explore the interwoven mechanisms among five variables: family-supportive supervisor behavior (FSSB), work-family conflict, work-family enrichment, job burnout, and work engagement. We conducted a large-scale questionnaire survey among Chinese CPMPs. A total of 656 questionnaires were returned; 446 were considered valid. The groups of CPMPs prone to occupational psychological problems were identified, which enhanced the targeted organizational management in the construction industry. The hypothetical model was verified with SEM. The results revealed that the effect of work-family enrichment was more significant than work-family conflict, which implies that the positive psychology process may play a more prominent role than the negative process. There was a significant correlation between FSSB and work-family conflict/ enrichment; but no direct correlation between FSSB and job burnout/work engagement. This implies that the improvement of the work-family relationship plays a full mediating role in improving CPMPs' occupational psychological health. This research provides a thorough understanding of CPMPs' interwoven occupational psychological problems and gives suggestions to enhance their occupational psychological health.