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Summary The current research aimed to develop a multi-dimensional scale on the career barriers of social work undergraduates in China. In Study 1, an open-ended survey ( N = 202) and group discussion ( N = 6) among social work undergraduates were conducted, which generated 37 items on career barriers. Based on these items, a scale was developed in Study 2 through a survey study among another sample of Chinese undergraduates majoring in social work ( N = 415). Findings Results from principal component analysis revealed a three-factor structure underlying these items (attitudinal barriers, normative barriers, and control barriers). It was also found that attitudinal barriers and normative barriers served as significant predictors for satisfaction with academic major and occupational intention. Satisfaction with academic major also mediated the relations between these two types of career barriers and occupational intention. Results related to the predictive validity of control barriers were mixed. Applications These findings carry both theoretical and practical implications for career education and career counseling practices. This research developed a scale on career barriers for Chinese undergraduates majoring in social work. In career counseling practice, this instrument may serve as a tool to identify individuals' specific career barriers, and may guide counselor's further intervention for clients.

International trade levels can change the relationship between resource endowments and green economic growth. Therefore, this study tested the resource curse hypothesis from the perspective of green growth in China using provincial-level panel data for 2005–2017. Energy conservation and environmental improvement were considered under green growth to further analyze the regional mechanism of the resource curse. A panel threshold model was used to identify the impact of import and export threshold effects on the transformation of this mechanism. The resource curse hypothesis was found to be valid nationwide; it hindered green economic growth mainly by impeding energy conservation and curbing environmental improvement. In terms of regional differences in green growth, resource endowment had a positive impact on the eastern region, a negative impact on the central region, and no effect on the western region. When the levels of import and export trade exceeded the threshold values, the resource curse effect was enhanced by reducing energy conservation and weakened by promoting environmental improvement, respectively. Therefore, the Chinese government should establish a more reasonable import and export trade structure, promote changes to the energy structure and green technological innovation, and reduce the negative impact of resource endowment on green growth.

AbstractThis study presents an analytical framework integrating welfare developmentalism and interactive central–local relations to understand the underlying dynamics of the dramatic pension coverage expansion in China in the last decade. We empirically test the research hypotheses based on the analytical framework using data from the Chinese General Social Survey 2008–2017. The results show that various individual and institutional factors, including demographic profiles, socio‐economic status, institutional contexts, and regional economic development, are significant predictors of pension participation. Regions with more local capacity have higher pension participation rates; however, there has been a trend towards regional convergence in China's pension coverage expansion since 2012. This study contributes to the literature on the social policymaking process by revealing how the forces of top‐down pressure from the centre and bottom‐up motivations derived from the local conditions are embedded into the conceptual framework of welfare developmentalism. Our findings imply that the implementation of an inclusive pension scheme requires careful policy design and coordination among regions to address the interests of different parties.

Purpose
– Attempting to explore the role of direct experience in influencing disaster consciousness and public opinion, the purpose of this paper is to carry out comparative analyses of Japanese people's knowledge, risk perception, and policy preference about large-scale earthquake disaster before and after the Great East Japan Earthquake. More importantly, aiming to provide implications regarding the application of past experience, the predictive power of direct experience on disaster consciousness is also examined.


Design/methodology/approach
– This study analyzed parts of the data collected from two nationwide public opinion surveys among Japanese conducted by the Japanese Government. Analyses of variance were performed to examine changes in disaster consciousness. A path model was developed to examine the predicted effects of direct experience. χ2 tests were performed to examine changes in strategy preference.


Findings
– This study found significant changes in Japanese people's knowledge of natural hazards and perception of mega disaster risk. Tests of the path model suggested significant positive effect of societal level impact on disaster consciousness and strong predictive power of knowledge on risk perception. Significant changes in strategy preference were also found.


Practical implications
– Results supported the predictive power of direct experience, highlighting the significance of recalling past experience as well as creating indirect experience to raise public consciousness and motivate appropriate actions.


Originality/value
– This is one of the few studies that investigate changes in public opinion among Japanese before and after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Acknowledging the population aging trend, the urbanization process, and also the old-age security challenges facing rural migrant workers, this study sets out to explore and make theoretical sense of the pension policy process for rural migrant workers, through a case study in Beijing. Applying the stage model of the policymaking process, and an equitable-effective-efficient evaluative framework, an inquiry frame is constructed to formulate research questions theoretically and to facilitate the whole study. Mixed methods integrating quantitative and qualitative research were adopted to achieve the stated purpose. The secondary data yielded by a random sampling survey (N=3,024) were employed to provide a contextual base, and to examine what factors are influencing rural migrant worker choices and participation in pension schemes, through a multivariate Probit regression method. The effect of pension program on consumption smoothing and income redistribution, reflected by pension replacement rates, are explored through actuarial models. Based on the findings of a quantitative study, semi-structured, in-depth interviews were carried out with 22 rural migrant workers, 6 governmental officials, 5 scholars and 5 human resource managers in Beijing. Through prolonged immersion in the research site, qualitative research further addresses the mechanisms and factors functioning within the policymaking process. Merging mixed methods utilizing the stages model of policy process, this study has been able to make discoveries not reported in previous studies. This study is of considerable significance, as it contributes novel insights and concepts into understanding the dynamics of the policy process in the case study of rural migrant worker pension provision in China. First, in response to the inquiry frame, it establishes an analytical framework to uncover the underlying policymaking process, as well as the mechanisms and factors functioning within each stage. In the agenda setting stage, it is the central government which can initiate the agenda setting process for rural migrant workers. At the same time, however, local governments are driven by their own interests and compelled by the central government's desire to get pension issues on the agenda. It is indicated that decentralization, centralization and incrementalism are functioning together in policy formulation and adoption. From both the micro and macro perspectives, this study identifies what factors are contributing to the gap between policy design and implementation. Guided by a preset three-Es framework, the whole policy process and its (potential) impacts are evaluated. Second, throughout the whole study, an interest is displayed through its analysis in rural migrant workers' situations, needs and opinions. It is found that governments are playing an overwhelmingly decisive role in policy making, that rural migrant workers' voices are largely unheard, and that powers are concentrated in unrepresentative hands. Policy suggestions on moving toward a democratic policy process are then discussed. Finally, this study further proposes a package of concrete policy implications to systematically address these practical policy issues. This package mainly covers the household registration system, the sandwich generation, preservation of pension rights, policy transparency and publicity, policies being moderately mandated, and particular social welfare programs. ; published_or_final_version ; Social Work and Social Administration ; Doctoral ; Doctor of Philosophy

AbstractThis work develops a Cournot game model to study two competing supply chains, each consisting of one manufacturer and one supplier, producing and selling substitutable green products. The manufacturers decide whether to adopt the green supplier integration (GSI) strategy and the green supplier development (GSD) investment level to improve the product greenness degree. The interaction between the GSD decisions and the GSI strategies are analyzed with different manufacturer GSD capacities and market greenness sensitivity. The results indicate that the manufacturer with a higher GSD capacity will always adopt the GSI strategy to maximize GSD investment level or profit, and the manufacturer with a lower GSD capacity decides whether to adopt the GSI strategy by comparing the GSD capacities of the two manufacturers. The game model is extended from dedicated sourcing to diversified sourcing and hybrid sourcing to obtain optimal sourcing options jointly reached by the two manufacturers. Under these extensions, the GSI strategy always leads to higher GSD investment levels, and adopting the GSI strategies by both manufacturers becomes the only Nash equilibrium strategy combination. Manufacturers choose different sourcing options by judging the difference in their GSD capacities under different criteria, and choose hybrid sourcing when their GSD capacity gap is sufficiently large in a weakly competitive market.