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External program manager involvement can provide professional and systematic management services to owners. It can help to manage and coordinate different subprojects and ensure the achievement of the overall strategic goals of large projects. The promotion of external program manager involvement is not only efficiency-driven, but the institutional environment also has a significant impact. This study developed a theoretical model to explain how external program manager involvement is influenced by external institutional forces (coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures) and internal top management support. Based on a questionnaire survey, this study tested the research model through partial least-squares structural equation modeling. The empirical results revealed that coercive pressures have no significant impact on external program manager involvement; owners' top management support acts as a complete mediator between the mimetic pressures and external program manager involvement; normative pressures have the greatest impact on top management support and external program manager involvement, and top management support plays a key but partially mediating role. A direct contribution of this study is to reveal how different types of isomorphic pressures can be better exercised to facilitate the involvement of external program managers. Going further, by incorporating both external institutional pressures and internal top management support into the research model, this study provides insight into how organizations are influenced by external institutions to apply tools or approaches internally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

External management consultants have been increasingly employed by owners of complex construction projects (CCPs) to foster management innovation and improve their organizational capability. However, the dynamics of the owner-consultant collaboration process in such projects are still unknown. To bridge this gap, this paper explores the roles of external consultant involvement in fostering management innovation and developing an organizational capability in CCPs. Based on survey data collected from 102 such projects across different types in China, the partial least square-structural equation modeling analysis results uncover the positive effect of external consultant involvement in creating management innovation and building organizational capability. In particular, the mediating role of management innovation is identified in the exploration and transformation learning processes with external consultants involved. The findings of this study provide a novel explanation for the creation of management innovation in CCPs through external consultant involvement and useful guidance to project owners to better identify and utilize external consultants in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous development for the straw utilization industry, studying the sustainability of different straw utilization industries and the realization of the optimal distribution of regional straw utilization industries has become an important issue. This paper studied the straw utilization industry in Shandong through field investigation and literature research, and comprehensively evaluated these industries through emergy analysis. Results showed that the emergy-based sustainability indexes (ESI) of straw biogas (SBP) and feed productions (SFP) are both high, 1.61 and 1.49 respectively, which should be encouraged. ESIs of straw-based particleboard (SBPP) and straw-bioethanol production (SP) are low, 0.61 and 0.54 respectively, which should be restricted, and other ways could be developed appropriately. Moreover, a methodology combining emergy analysis and multi-objective programming was constructed to solve optimization of regional straw comprehensive utilization scheme. The results suggested that if the main goal was to improve the regional economy, the proportion of straw returning to the field (SRF) should be reduced and that of the SBP should be increased. If the environmental impact was the main optimization goal, then SRF should be the main straw treatment method. Furthermore, to avoid adverse effects on environmental benefits and sustainable development, it was recommended that more attention should be paid to avoid blindly pursuing the increase in the scale of straw utilization. [Display omitted] • Emergy analysis is applied to compare nine main straw utilization methods. • A methodology is developed to solve straw utilization scheme optimization. • Optimization schemes of straw utilization under three priorities are proposed. • Suggestions for development of China's straw utilization industry are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Comprehensive methodology of emergy accounting and optimization is established. • Sensitivity analysis and "3R" principle is applied for optimization of emergy system. • Optimization design can contribute to the agriculture sustainable development. China's agriculture is facing a series of severe challenges such as increasingly tight resource constraints and deteriorating environmental problems. The intensive utilization of agricultural resources and sustainable development of agricultural have been paid more and more attention by the Chinese government. Hence, an emergy approach is employed in this study to comprehensively evaluate economic benefit, environmental pressure and sustainability performance of agricultural system in Gaomi city. The results showed that the emergy yield ratio (EYR), the environmental loading ratio (ELR) and the emergy sustainable index (ESI) of the agricultural system are 2.25, 1.91 and 1.18 respectively. To further improve the sustainable development level of the agricultural system, the sensitivity analysis is used to identify key emergy flows restricting its sustainable development. On this basis, tracing the source to find the key substances. Finally, according to the position of key substances in the agricultural system, the Reduce-Reuse-Recycle ("3R") principle of circular economy is introduced to design three optimization scenarios. The results showed that if all the three optimization scenarios proposed in this study are realized, the sustainable development level of the agricultural system in Gaomi city can be increased by 52.51%. The emergy optimization methodology system based on "3R" principle proposed in this study can provide a new perspective of an industry evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]