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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between challenge-hindrance stressors and employees' career initiative while incorporating the mediating role of positive affect and the moderating role of job autonomy.Design/methodology/approachFive proposed hypotheses were tested using path analysis with two waves of data collected from 136 part-time MBA students.FindingsThe findings show that challenge stressors indirectly facilitate career initiative, whereas hindrance stressors indirectly inhibit career initiative, both with positive affect as mediators. Job autonomy enhances the direct relationship between positive affect and career initiative, as well as the indirect relationships among challenge/hindrance stressors, positive affect and career initiative.Originality/valueThe study brings a new perspective to understanding why an employee conducts career initiative, thereby widening the scope of the antecedents of career initiative. The study discloses positive affect as the mediator that transmits the opposite effects from challenge-hindrance stressors to career initiative. It also identifies job autonomy as an important boundary condition for positive affect to exert its influence on career initiative, as well as challenge-hindrance stressors that influence career initiative via positive affect.

Since the rise of mass fundraising platforms, they are offered to entrepreneurs and teams with innovative ideas. Under this trend, more and more start-ups and scholars pay attention to and study the factors that contribute to the success of mass fundraising. On the mass fundraising platform, people from different countries and different cultural backgrounds perceive the creativity of project products according to their personal preferences, and then make sponsorship decisions. In recent years, pro-social activities are not limited to large non-profit groups or organizations. More and more pro-social fundraising projects with public welfare nature are springing up, and more and more entrepreneurs mention pro-social keywords in the content description of the project, as a way to determine the degree of pro-sociality. In this study, 312 valid questionnaires are collected from the general public in Fujian Province, and each questionnaire represents the valid sample of this study. The results are as follows: 1. Environmental friendliness has a significant impact on the success of fundraising. 2. Creativity has a significant impact on the success of fundraising. 3. Socialization has a significant impact on the success of fundraising. According to the results, some suggestions are put forward, which are expected to help product design effectively convey the concepts of environmental friendliness, creativity and pro-sociality to more people through specific ways, so as to promote the success of sponsorship.

Due to the democratization and liberalization of national policies, which have promoted global economic development, and coupled with advances in information technology, dramatic changes have occurred in economic development. Among them, global cultural flows have far-reaching and wide-ranging impacts on countries worldwide. The interactive relationship between culture and the economy has enabled the cultural industry to grow rapidly. As the structure of industry and people's lifestyles and ideologies have changed, the development of design expertise has also transformed from tangible objects to the intangible world. Additionally, with the advent of the information society, emphasis has gradually been placed on interactive design, experience design, and service design. Intangible service design may become an important source of innovation and core competitiveness with future corporate value. The research object of this study is the average consumer in Fujian Province, China. Questionnaires were issued and collected by email. A total of 400 questionnaires were sent out, and 314 valid questionnaires were returned; thus, the recovery rate was 79%. The findings of this research include the following. (1) Social marketing significantly and positively affects service design. (2) Service design significantly and positively affects consumer-perceived value. (3) Social marketing significantly and positively affects consumer-perceived value. Based on these results, recommendations are made with the expectation of helping the development of cultural and creative industries to turn toward sustainable development.

We applied social cognitive theory and the job demands–resources model to examine the relationship between challenge and hindrance stressor types and taking charge. The sample comprised 242 Master of Business Administration students at a university located in eastern China. The regression results reveal that challenge stressors positively predicted taking charge, and that the direct effect of hindrance stressors on taking charge was nonsignificant. Control appraisals positively mediated the relationship between challenge stressors and taking charge, and negatively mediated the relationship between hindrance stressors and taking charge. The positive relationship between challenge stressors and control appraisals was stronger when resource acquisition tactics were highly proactive rather than when they were less proactive. Proactive resource acquisition tactics also moderated the indirect effect of challenge stressors on taking charge through control appraisals. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

AbstractThe adsorption process of inorganic arsenic (As) plays an important role in its mobility, bioavailability, and toxicity in the river environment. In this work, the adsorption of dissolved arsenite (As(III)) and arsenate (As(V)) by microplastics (MPs) pellets (polystyrene (PS) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE)), river sediment, and their mixture were investigated to assess the adsorption affinities and mechanism. The adsorption kinetics showed slow and mild rising zones from the natural behavior of the chemical adsorption. The results indicated that both MP characteristics and water properties played a significant role in the adsorption behavior of inorganic As species. The As adsorption equilibrium was modeled well by both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms and partly fitted with the Sips model suggesting that both mono-layer and multi-layer adsorption occurred during adsorption The spontaneous adsorption process for both As(III) and As(V) was evidenced by the adsorption thermodynamics. The maximum adsorption capacities of As(III) and As(V) reached 143.3 mg/kg and 109.8 mg/kg on PS in deionized water, which were higher than those on sediment-PS mixture (119.3 mg/kg, 99.2 mg/kg), which were all lower than on sediment alone (263.3 mg/kg, 398.7 mg/kg). The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis identified that As(III) and As(V) interaction with sediment surface functional groups was the main adsorption mechanism from surface complexation and coordination. Two functional groups of polystyrene (-NH2, -OH) were mainly involved in the adsorption of inorganic As species on PS, while -COO- and -OH functional groups contributed to the adsorption mechanism of inorganic As species on LDPE. The findings provide valuable insight on the adsorption behavior and mechanisms of As(III) and As(V) in river systems in the presence of MPs particles. Both PS and LDPE were shown to be less effective than river sediment in the adsorption of As species from water, which provides a different perspective in understanding the scale of MPs impact in pollutant transport in the aquatic environment.
Graphical Abstract