This paper is a comparative study of formal and informal social networks and their effects on subjective well-being in Australia, Britain, and China. Formal social networks are measured by group affiliations, and informal social networks are measured by personal connections with kin, friends, and acquaintances. An analysis of the national representative sample surveys from the three countries shows that the formal networks are of notable importance in increasing people's subjective well-being in Britain and urban China, but the informal networks have much greater impacts in all three countries, particularly in rural China. We propose a cultural-structural interaction framework to explain the observed differences in the network influence on subjective well-being in the three countries.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of corporate social capital and local embeddedness on perceived business performance of Chinese enterprises operating overseas, whose recent growth resulted from the Belt and Road Initiative. Design/methodology/approach This study reports the results of a sample of 83 Shaanxi outward foreign direct investment (FDI) firms operating in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. In-depth interviews with a few sampled firms are used to develop the survey questionnaire and help interpret the results of statistical analysis. Findings This study proposes two hypotheses and both are supported by the data. First, corporate social capital is a three-dimensional concept, covering governmental, market and personal sources with each source making an equal, positive effect on perceived overseas performance of the surveyed firms. Second, these firms do better when having developed a higher degree of local embeddedness, a measure on local channels used to obtain information and mobilize resources. While local embeddedness indeed mediates some effect of corporate social capital, both variables have shown direct impact on performance. Research limitations/implications Reported findings are from a small sample of 83 firms in an inland Chinese province, and business performance is measured by subjective evaluation rather than economic output. Practical implications The practical implication is that a Chinese FDI firm is expected to maintain all three relational channels – governmental, market and interpersonal – because the firm can gain different kinds of information and resources from these sources and each channel is necessary and equally important for the firm’s development. Importantly, it needs a different strategy to maintain and best use each channel. For the Belt and Road Initiative to be effective, China must establish platforms through which enterprises can strengthen and reconfigure their corporate social capital, as well as to cultivate and sustain their local networks in foreign destinations.

The degree of risk to which agricultural farmers are exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they tackle those difficulties is a critical topic. Although the topic has been paid considerable attention by worldwide scholars, this study intends to compensate for it via conducting a ground-breaking analysis based on sample survey data. Integrating theoretical perspectives of individual- and collective-level social capitals rooted in sociology, and using NPRM (Nested Poisson Regression Model) to analyze a sample survey data collected in rural China in August 2020, we generated the following findings. (1) The overall risks and damages to agricultural production and management are relatively minimal. Thus, farmers are highly confident in conquering the pandemic and recovering their business. (2) Compared with micro- and macro-level influencing factors, social capital at both levels could greatly help agricultural farmers obtain informal and formal supporting resources (such as encouragement and financial supports), thus helping them to cope with the pandemic shock. (3) Specifically, the acquisition of informal supporting resources is mainly affected by the size of farmers’ ordinary networks (Spring Festival Visiting Network) and the frequency of public activities held in a village; gaining access to formal supporting resources is also influenced by the frequency of public activities, but the state of farmers’ personal connections with official departments plays a crucial role in determining the amount of such resources can be obtained. According to these empirical findings, suggestions on how to suppress the negative effects and lift the positive effects of dual social capitals in the process of responding to risks are proposed.

Grassroots elections of rural village heads and urban community directors are an important public arena for social-political participation of Chinese citizens. Analyzing the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS2017) data through the models of GSEM (general equation structure modeling) and fulfilling the robustness check via IV (instrumental variable) method (including IV-Probit and 2SLS-IV models), this article examines the direct and indirect effects of personal networks on voting participation after 2012 under the leadership of Xi. We find that people with greater amounts of network resources and higher frequencies of social eating with network members have a higher likelihood to participate in elections. As to mediating effects, the two measures of personal networks pave the way for people to participate in formal networks of associational engagement, which in turn increase their participation in elections; however, people with higher values in the two personal network measures tend to have lower levels of institutional trust, which in turn hinders voting participation. In comparison, the positive effects are more powerful than the negative ones, so on the whole, personal networks are acting as an important conducive force for grassroots election participation.

Optimizing alloy composition is an effective way to improve the microstructure and properties of superalloys. Herein, the influence of carbon content (0.071, 0.105, and 0.136 wt%, respectively) on the microstructure and mechanical properties of GH3230 alloy formed by laser melting deposition is investigated. The results indicate that the carbon contents affect the quantity, morphology, and distribution of carbides in the matrix of the alloy. As the carbon content increases, the number of carbides increases, and the morphology of the carbides at the grain boundaries changes from discontinuous blocks to chains, and finally into strips. Three alloys with high plasticity at room temperature, and the maximum elongation close to 60% is achieved for alloy containing 0.105 wt% C. The high‐temperature elongation of the alloy also increases at first and then decreases with the carbon. It is therefore concludes that the optimized carbon content is 0.105 wt% by combining both the strength and plasticity for GH3230 alloy prepared by laser melting deposition.