Collaboration innovation (CI) is increasingly becoming a crucial strategy for enterprises to enhance their technological capabilities. The knowledge base among members and collaborative environment significantly impact on the success of collaboration. However, existing research has overlooked exploration of inter-firm’s knowledge diversity and inclusive culture. This study was developed information/decision-making theory and social categorization theory to investigate how knowledge diversity and inclusive culture affect firms’ CI. This study collected 5126 annual observations from 712 listed companies in China’s high-tech manufacturing industry between 2016 and 2023. Regression analysis through Stata 17.0 was used to test the conceptual model. By employing the fixed effects model, we found that: (1) knowledge variety (KV) positively impacts CI, while knowledge separation (KS) exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with CI; (2) KV positively influences collaborative innovation depth (CD) but does not significantly affect collaborative innovation breadth (CB), while KS exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with CD; (3) Inclusive culture primarily manifests in relation to KS, which positively moderates the effect of KS on CD. This exploration of when and how the KS promotes or inhibits CI broadens the understanding of the consequences of KS in an inter-firm perspective.

In the context of the digital economy and quality engineering construction, micro-innovation has gained increasing attention in construction projects. This study incorporates knowledge and character management theory into micro-innovation research and explores how intellectual capital and team character shape micro-innovation in construction projects within the digital economy. A questionnaire design was used to collect data from 315 projects, and the structural equation modeling was applied to test the conceptual model. The results reveal three main findings: (1) intellectual capital exerts a direct positive effect on micro-innovation in construction projects, whereas team character does not; (2) both intellectual capital and team character indirectly enhance micro-innovation through policy perception and market sensing; and (3) the mediating effect of market sensing is stronger in the relationship between intellectual capital and micro-innovation, while the mediating effect of policy perception is more prominent in the relationship between team character and micro-innovation. By theorizing the mechanisms of micro-innovation in construction projects, this study provides important implications for improving micro-innovation practices in the digital era.

Background: Parental responses to children’s negative emotions (PRCNE) play a crucial role in child development, yet their relationship with children’s purpose in life (CPL) remains underexplored. Given that Chinese parents attach great importance to gender-differentiated child-rearing, it is imperative to investigate gender-based variations in children’s perceptions of PRCNE and their associations with the construction of meaning in CPL. Purpose: This study aimed to investigate: (1) the interconnections among perceived dimensions of PRCNE; (2) the pattern of associations linking perceived PRCNE dimensions to children’s CPL, thereby extending the literature on parental behaviors and child development; and (3) the boundary role of gender by examining gender differences in both the perceived PRCNE patterns and their associations with CPL. Methods: Data were collected from a sample of 573 Chinese students between March and June 2024, and network analysis was conducted. Given the study’s focus on pairwise variable associations, strength centrality and bridge strength were jointly examined to identify key nodes and meaningful connections within the networks. Results: Network comparisons within the PRCNE network revealed that problem-focused response was the most central node among boys (centrality = 1.142), whereas emotion-focused response was the most central node among girls (centrality = 1.085). In the combined PRCNE–CPL network, minimization response emerged as the strongest bridge node and was positively associated with beyond-self orientation (weight = 0.112). While global network structures were invariant across gender, localized differences in specific edge weights suggested that girls’ networks exhibited tighter clustering of negative responses. Furthermore, the assocaition between problem-focused response and meaningfulness was significantly stronger for boys than for girls ( p = 0.034), while the edge between emotion-focused response and goal-directedness appeared only for girls ( p = 0.055). Conclusion: These findings indicate that children’s perceptions of PRCNE reflect a mixed pattern: overall, boys perceived a greater emphasis on problem-solving responses, while girls perceived a greater emphasis on emotional support. Minimization response is positively associated with goal directedness, suggesting it may co-occur with aspects of children’s purpose development. Gender-stratified analyses further revealed that the difference of purpose built between problem-focused response among boys and emotion-focused response girls. These results underscore the importance of perceived PRCNE for children’s development and broaden the research significance of family education.