Amid AI-driven organizational transformation, employees’ subjective evaluations of AI technologies—referred to as AI awareness—have become a critical psychological factor influencing innovation behavior. This study aims to uncover how AI awareness affects employee innovation performance through behavioral pathways and examines the moderating role of individual achievement motivation in this process. Grounded in Cognitive Appraisal Theory and the Dual Pathway Model, we construct a dual-path mediation model, in which proactive and withdrawal behaviors act as mediators, and achievement motivation serves as a boundary condition. Based on a two-wave survey of 413 knowledge workers in China’s high-tech sector, the proposed model was empirically tested using moderated mediation analysis (PROCESS macro). The results reveal that AI awareness has a significant dual-path effect on innovation behavior: on the one hand, it promotes innovation by stimulating proactive behavior; on the other hand, it may suppress innovation by inducing withdrawal behavior. Moreover, achievement motivation plays a crucial moderating role in this mechanism by strengthening the positive mediating effect of proactive behavior and weakening the negative mediating effect of withdrawal behavior. This study conceptualizes AI awareness as a psychological input encompassing both perceived opportunity and perceived threat, clarifies the behavioral response mechanisms of employees facing AI, and highlights the boundary-regulating role of individual motivation in organizational adaptability. Practically, the study suggests designing differentiated HR interventions based on employees’ cognitive appraisals and motivational profiles to enhance human–AI collaboration, foster innovation resilience, and improve organizational adaptability amid digital transformation.

Do larger cities still suffer from higher crime rates? The scaling relationship between the number of crimes and the population size for the maximum of 758 cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants in the United States from 1999 to 2014 was analyzed. For the total group of cities, the relationship is superlinear for both violent and property crimes. However, for the subgroups of the top 12, top 24, and top 50 largest cities, the relationship changes to sublinear for both violent and property crimes. Results from the panel data analysis are in support of these findings. Along with population size, income per capita and population density also influence the outcome of crime counts. Implications from these findings will be discussed.

Under intensified downward economic pressures on the economy, technological innovation is playing a pivotal role in the development of Chinese enterprises. Employees’ psychological safety significantly influences their innovative behaviors, as a climate of psychological safety fosters greater willingness among staff to engage in voice behaviors. Guanxi with a team leader may decrease this effect. This study analyzed survey data from 263 employees of China’s private manufacturing enterprises to explore the moderating role of guanxi with a team leader in the relationship between psychological safety climate and voice behavior. Results showed that psychological safety climate was positively correlated with promotive and prohibitive voices, and employees with a higher psychological safety climate were more likely to develop voice behavior. Guanxi with team leaders negatively moderated the relationship between psychological safety climate and promotive and prohibitive voices, and the association between psychological safety climate and promotive and prohibitive voices was strong when guanxi with a team leader was weak. This study expands the scope of the application of guanxi, with team leaders as a moderating variable. It helps leaders focus on the psychological safety climate of employees, maintain harmonious and friendly interpersonal relationships with employees, enable employees to spontaneously contribute to the development of the organization, and enhance cohesion in the organization.

Many countries in the world have been experiencing widely varying rates of change in their carbon intensity (CI) of economic output. The dynamic trend of CI in this research is measured by the progress ratio (PR) from an experience curve (EC) involving 127 countries during the period of 1980–2011. The overall average PR of 88.8% estimated for the total group of 127 indicates a decreasing trend of carbon intensity. This means that each doubling of the cumulative CO₂ emission by this group has reduced carbon intensity by 11.2%. While a majority of 83 countries experienced a decreasing trend with an average PR of 73.1%, the remaining 44 countries have experienced an increasing trend with an average PR of 114.5%. When two different types of EC, classical and kinked, were applied, 73 countries displayed a kinked slope with an average PR of 73.4%, and 54 countries displayed a classical slope with an average PR of 104.2%. Examination of the type of trend and slope of EC suggests the chance of a major improvement of the future CI in the following order: (1) the 35 countries with a classical slope and an increasing trend of CIs; (2) the nine countries with a kinked slope and an increasing trend of CIs; (3) the 19 countries with a classical slope and a decreasing trend of CIs; and (4) the 64 countries with a kinked slope and a decreasing trend of CIs. Further implications from these findings are discussed.

Despite the fact that fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) causes serious health issues, few studies have investigated the level and annual rate of PM_2.5 change across a large number of countries. For a better understanding of the global trend of PM_2.5, this study classified 190 countries into groups showing different trends of PM_2.5 change during the 2000–2014 period by estimating the progress ratio (PR) from the experience curve (EC), with PM_2.5 exposure (PME)–the population-weighted average annual concentration of PM_2.5 to which a person is exposed—as the dependent variable and the cumulative energy consumption as the independent variable. The results showed a wide variation of PRs across countries: While the average PR for 190 countries was 96.5%, indicating only a moderate decreasing PME trend of 3.5% for each doubling of the cumulative energy consumption, a majority of 118 countries experienced a decreasing trend of PME with an average PR of 88.1%, and the remaining 72 countries displayed an increasing trend with an average PR of 110.4%. When two different types of EC, classical and kinked, were applied, the chances of possible improvement in the future PME could be suggested in the descending order as follows: (1) the 60 countries with an increasing classical slope; (2) the 12 countries with an increasing kinked slope; (3) the 75 countries with a decreasing classical slope; and (4) the 43 countries with a decreasing kinked slope. The reason is that both increasing classical and kinked slopes are more likely to be replaced by decreasing kinked slopes, while decreasing classical and kinked slopes are less likely to change in the future. Population size seems to play a role: A majority of 52%, or 38 out of the 72 countries with an increasing slope, had a population size of bigger than 10 million inhabitants. Many of these countries came from SSA, EAP, and LAC regions. By identifying different patterns of past trends based on the analysis of PME for individual countries, this study suggests a possible change of the future slope for different groups of countries.

Despite numerous studies on energy productivity and efficiency, only a few focus on the electricity intensity (EI) of economic output. As these studies largely examine the declining trend in EI, the increasing and/or fluctuating trends in EI have not been studied. We analyze EI trends by estimating the progress ratios from experience curves of 91 countries from 1991 to 2011. The results reveal wide variation in progress ratios, ranging from 53% to 135%, with an average of 101.5%. Furthermore, more than half of the 91 countries displayed a kinked slope, indicating the fluctuating rate of change in EI. The rate of population growth seems to be related to the increasing EI trends. A clear understanding of the relative performance of each country in terms of the progress ratio and the pattern of EI trends would be useful for the country’s policymakers to develop strategic options for the future.