Bangladesh is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. In particular, its riverine-island (char) dwellers face continuous riverbank erosion, frequent flooding, and other adverse effects of climate change that increase their vulnerability. This paper aims to assess the livelihood vulnerability of riverine communities by applying the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) vulnerability framework and the livelihood vulnerability index (LVI). Results indicate substantial variation in the vulnerability of char dwellers based on mainland proximity. The main drivers of livelihood vulnerability are char-dweller adaptation strategies and access to food and health services. The study further reveals that riverbank erosion, frequent flood inundation, and lack of employment and access to basic public services are the major social and natural drivers of livelihood vulnerability. Char-based policy focusing on short- and long-term strategy is required to reduce livelihood vulnerability and enhance char-dweller resilience.

In leadership research, Western leaderships are quite dominant while insufficient attention has been paid to Eastern leaderships, including Chinese leadership. Paternalistic leadership, an indigenous Chinese leadership, is prevalent in Chinese society given that it has been bounded by the cultural tradition. Yet, it is necessary to further explore the divergent influencing mechanisms of paternalistic leadership in Mainland China. The primary objective of this research was to replicate and empirically test a model on paternalistic leadership and in-role/extra-role performance by using trust-in-supervisor as the mediating variable. With the data of 239 supervisor–subordinate dyads collected from a textile firm in Mainland China, we conducted statistic analysis of structural equation modelling, multi-level analysis and so on by applying Amos 5.0 and SPSS 12.0. The results showed that trust-in-supervisor completely mediated the relationship between supervisors' authoritarian leadership and subordinate's in-role/extra-role performance, and trust-in-supervisor completely mediated the relationship between supervisors' moral leadership and subordinate's in-role/extra-role performance, whereas trust did not mediate the relationship between supervisors' benevolent leadership and subordinate's in-role/extra-role performance. Overall, by investigating the influencing mechanisms of the three elements of paternalistic leadership in the Chinese context, the current research not only adds a cultural perspective to paternalistic leadership literature but also advances our knowledge of the underlying psychological processes that paternalistic leadership works. The research confirms that paternalistic leadership is applicable in the context of business organizations in Mainland China. Since prior research has provided little theoretical guidance on the effect of paternalistic leadership on performance, this research contributes to the literature by identifying and examining the social exchange and social identity mechanisms of trust-in-supervisor. It highlights the great significance of trust-in-supervisor in explaining paternalistic leader effectiveness and leader–employee relationships in Mainland China. It explains how the three elements of paternalistic leadership have the differential effects upon subordinate's trust-in-supervisor, and it provides some cultural insights on paternalistic leadership. The results of the current research also shed light on how practicing managers may foster appropriate leadership styles in order to facilitate subordinates' in-role/extra-role performance. The results indicate that moral leadership and benevolence leadership are positively related to trust-in-supervisor, while authoritarian leadership is negatively related to trust-in-supervisor. Hence, supervisors who wish to obtain subordinates' trust and trigger their motivation would better abandon authoritarian leadership and adopt moral leadership and benevolent leadership instead. When subordinates have unsatisfactory in-role performance and extra-role performance, supervisors need to look into the details for the solutions, especially, in the areas of ‘trustworthiness’ and ‘paternalistic leadership’. In addition, human-oriented human resource practice is advocated, and leadership programme could be developed accordingly for business organizations in Mainland China. This research also highlights the fact that further research should be conducted in order to advance our knowledge of paternalistic leadership.

In recent years, supply chain management (SCM) has become a hot issue of theoretical and empirical research. In supply chain management, the range of manufacturer’s decision expanded from the single enterprise itself to the entire supply chain. As a fundamental decision-making for manufacturers, the quality of supplier performance not only affects the downstream business, but also determines the success of the whole supply chain. Therefore, choosing suitable suppliers in the supply chain becomes a key strategic step, it directly impacts the benefits for manufacturers. However, it is difficult for manufacturers particularly in the supplier selection, to have comprehensive and accurate understanding of the supplier. The supplier selection is a complex multi-criteria problem including both quantitative and qualitative factors which may be in conflict and may also be uncertain. In this paper two scientific and simple calculation methods for manufacture’s decision-makers to choose the most ideal supplier have been provided, this paper deals with the supplier selection problems based on VIKOR algorithm (Vlse Kriterijumska Optimizacija Kompromisno Resenje) which is a compromise multiple criteria decision making approach with entropy method which gives the weights to indicators, and fuzzy multiple attribute decision-making method with vague sets incorporating TOPSIS. The VIKOR algorithm deals with the conflicts between indicators based on certain way to sort the scheme and choose the best scheme. And the Fuzzy TOPSIS with vague sets method helps to deal with inaccurate, incomplete and imperfect information to some extent. A numerical example is proposed to illustrate the effectiveness of the two algorithms. However, in the future it should consider the selection of indicators and data filtration and the right of assignment and so on, to make the results of evaluations more objective and accurate.

Charismatic leadership has become a popular topic in organizational research in the last few decades. However, to date there is still a very limited amount of empirical evidence that illuminates the underlying influencing processes of charismatic leadership and the effectiveness of this type of leadership in the Chinese context. Given its emphasis on leaders' extraordinary abilities and roles, the authors argue that the charismatic leadership paradigm is likely to be effective in the China context, which has been heavily influenced by Confucian ideology that values respect for authority, character building and loyalty to the superior. Therefore, the primary objective of this study is to develop a charismatic leadership model for Chinese organizations. Informed by motivational theory, social exchange theory and social identity theory, the authors hypothesized that supervisors' charismatic leadership could influence subordinates' work performance and turnover intention through the mediating role of loyalty to supervisors. The authors pointed researchers to a new direction for their future inquiry of understanding the underlying mechanism that charismatic leadership influences subordinates' attitudinal and behavioural outcomes should be further explored.

Customers are skeptical about shopping online because e-commerce environments are typically considered impersonal. To assure product quality and to enhance customer proclivity in such environments, post-sale services (i.e., product returns, exchange, and maintenance) may be considered to alleviate customers’ skepticism. Therefore, this study’s objective is to investigate the role of an online retailer’s post-sale services (i.e., product return, exchange, and maintenance) on customers’ attitudinal (building relationships) and behavioral aspects (developing customers’ repurchase intentions). Structural equation modeling is applied to data collected through an online survey answered by 409 online customers of jd.com (after missing data were removed). Research findings show that product return, exchange, and maintenance services are strongly predictive of online customer satisfaction, and satisfaction significantly impacts customer trust. Both customer satisfaction and trust, as indicators of relationship quality, further mediate the links between product return, exchange, and maintenance services and online customer repurchase intention. In addition, differences between male and female customers were found in various aspects of online retailers’ product return, exchange, and maintenance services. This is the first empirical study that not only examines the influence of all three dimensions of online retailers’ post-sale services on customers’ online shopping perceptions and decisions, but also considers differences between male and female customers. Finally, this research provides theoretical and managerial implications based on conceptual and empirical evidence.