Global Social Science and Humanities Journal

Human Resource Analytics and Talent Management Effectiveness in China: Evidence from Multinational Corporations and Local Enterprises

Bi Sheng — 2026-07-25

This study examines whether Human Resource Analytics (HRA) strengthens Talent Management Strategies (TMS) in China's corporate sector and whether organization type changes the strength of this relationship. Drawing on Human Capital Theory, the Resource-Based View, and Contingency Theory, the study used a quantitative cross-sectional survey of 150 HR professionals from information technology, financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, and retail organizations. The sample included 80 respondents from multinational corporations (MNCs) and 70 from local enterprises. Descriptive results showed moderately high HRA adoption (M = 3.73), with recruitment analytics as the most developed application (M = 4.02) and workforce planning analytics as the least developed (M = 3.18). Talent acquisition was the strongest talent-management dimension (M = 4.00), followed by employee retention (M = 3.91), employee development (M = 3.87), succession planning (M = 3.81), and performance management (M = 3.78). HRA was positively correlated with TMS (r = 0.61, p < 0.01) and significantly predicted TMS (beta = 0.61, p < 0.001), explaining 37% of its variance. Organization type significantly moderated this relationship (interaction beta = 0.18, p = 0.010), and the association was stronger among MNCs. The results indicate that HRA functions as a strategic capability, but its value depends on complementary resources, digital maturity, analytical skills, leadership support, and data governance. The study provides evidence for phased, context-sensitive HRA implementation in China.

Reimagining Jingdezhen: A Review of Porcelain Design Innovation Between Cultural Preservation and Contemporary Aesthetics.

Deng Nanxin — 2026-07-25

Jingdezhen, known as the 'Porcelain Capital' for over a millennium, represents one of the world's most significant and enduring craft heritage sites. Its ceramic traditions spanning imperial kilns, intangible craftsmanship, and global trade networks face profound challenges in the twenty-first century as the city navigates pressures of modernization, globalization, and contemporary design innovation. This critical review systematically examines how Jingdezhen's porcelain heritage has been reimagined through contemporary design practice, synthesizing scholarship from design studies, heritage studies, art history, cultural policy, and anthropology. The review is organized around seven thematic areas: (1) the historical legacy of Jingdezhen's porcelain culture; (2) transitions during the Republican and Maoist eras; (3) the reform period and globalization; (4) contemporary aesthetics and design innovation; (5) cultural preservation and policy interventions; (6) the creative ecosystem of studios, residencies, and institutions; and (7) critical debates on authenticity, commodification, and sustainability. Drawing on over 100 sources spanning Chinese and international scholarship, the paper identifies a central tension between heritage conservation and creative reinvention that manifests across material, economic, and institutional dimensions. The review proposes a conceptual framework the Preservation–Innovation Spectrum for understanding how craft heritage sites navigate competing demands of cultural continuity and aesthetic transformation. Key findings reveal that successful innovation in Jingdezhen depends on hybrid strategies combining traditional techniques with contemporary design principles, institutional support through creative clusters and education, and negotiated approaches to authenticity that resist both rigid preservationism and uncritical commodification. The paper concludes with implications for design practice, heritage policy, and future research directions, including comparative studies with other ceramic heritage sites and empirical investigations of consumer and producer perspectives.

Fine Arts Education and Ethnic Cultural Inheritance in Higher Education: A Four-Stage Conceptual Framework for Guizhou, China.

Cao Haini — 2026-07-25

Globalization, modernization, changing lifestyles, and declining participation in traditional practices have increased concern about the continuity of ethnic cultural heritage. This issue is especially important in Guizhou Province, China, where Miao, Dong, Buyi, and other ethnic communities maintain distinctive traditions in silverwork, embroidery, batik, architecture, clothing, crafts, and performance. Although universities increasingly recognize their responsibility for cultural inheritance, ethnic culture is often introduced in fine arts courses through decorative motifs, visual forms, or technical imitation without sufficient attention to historical context, symbolic meaning, identity, community participation, and contemporary relevance. This conceptual paper explains how fine arts education can support cultural inheritance through an integrated four-stage framework: documentation, aesthetic continuation, identity construction, and innovative transformation. The framework draws on art anthropology, social constructivism, and creative pedagogy and links the cognitive, affective, and behavioural dimensions of cultural learning. It proposes that students move from acquiring culturally grounded knowledge to developing aesthetic appreciation, cultural confidence, active participation, and responsible innovation. The paper argues that effective inheritance requires coherent curriculum design, student-centred and experiential learning, sustained engagement with practitioners and communities, and opportunities to apply traditional knowledge in contemporary artistic and professional contexts. The framework provides a theoretical guide for curriculum development, programme evaluation, university-community collaboration, and future empirical research in Guizhou higher education..

Reinterpreting Jingdezhen Porcelain Aesthetics in Contemporary Design: Findings from a Qualitative Multi-Source Study.

Deng Nanxin — 2026-07-25

Jingdezhen porcelain constitutes a major system of Chinese material culture in which vessel form, decorative symbolism, colour, glaze, craftsmanship, and philosophical meaning are closely integrated. Contemporary design has expanded the visibility of this heritage, but it has also encouraged superficial copying that preserves recognizable imagery while weakening cultural meaning. This article reports the principal findings of a qualitative case study examining how traditional Jingdezhen porcelain aesthetics are interpreted and transformed across contemporary design. The final analytical corpus comprised 65 archival sources, 15 traditional porcelain works, 15 contemporary cases, 30 completed visual-analysis protocols, and semi-structured interviews with 13 designers, ceramic artists, and cultural experts. Visual, semiotic, thematic, comparative, and cross-source analyses were combined. Five interconnected dimensions defined the traditional aesthetic system: formal harmony, symbolic motifs, colour traditions, material refinement, and cultural meaning. Six recurring reinterpretation strategies were identified: abstraction, simplification, recontextualisation, hybridisation, material and technical adaptation, and the deliberate balancing of tradition with innovation. Across product design, contemporary ceramic art, interior and decorative design, and experimental digital practice, abstraction and simplification were the most pervasive strategies, while recontextualisation and hybridisation extended porcelain aesthetics into new functions, media, and spatial settings. The findings show that successful fusion depends less on reproducing external historical forms than on translating their internal aesthetic logic and symbolic function. An integrated framework is proposed in which design semiotics mediates between heritage sources, transformation strategies, contemporary applications, and evaluation through aesthetic integration, cultural continuity, and contemporary relevance.

From Teaching to Learning Agency: Developing and Validating a Framework for Student-Centered Pedagogy in Contemporary Education

Zhong Yangyang — 2026-07-25

The transition from teacher-centered instruction toward student-centered pedagogy represents a major development in contemporary educational theory and practice. Yet the conceptual mechanisms through which student-centered pedagogical practices foster students’ capacity to act purposefully within learning environments remain insufficiently specified. In particular, student agency is frequently discussed alongside autonomy, engagement, participation, self-regulated learning, student voice, and empowerment without adequate conceptual differentiation, contributing to theoretical fragmentation and inconsistent measurement. This study proposes the Student Learning Agency Framework (SLAF), a multidimensional model explaining how specific student-centered pedagogical practices may cultivate students’ agentic capacities. The framework conceptualizes learning agency through interrelated dimensions of intentional action, strategic self-regulation, participatory influence, reflective adaptation, and perceived capacity to influence learning processes. Six pedagogical conditions learner choice, dialogic teaching, formative feedback, collaborative learning, reflective practice, and participation in educational decision-making are proposed as antecedents of learning agency. A multi-stage instrument-development and validation study is designed to test the framework. The proposed methodology incorporates construct specification, expert content validation, cognitive pretesting, pilot testing, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, reliability assessment, convergent and discriminant validity testing, structural equation modelling, and measurement-invariance analysis. Rather than treating student-centered education as a collection of instructional techniques, the proposed framework theorizes it as an educational environment capable of redistributing opportunities for intentional, reflective, and consequential student action. The study is presented as an empirical research protocol; consequently, no findings are fabricated or anticipated as observed results. The framework is intended to contribute to educational theory by clarifying the conceptual boundaries of learning agency and providing an empirically testable explanation of how pedagogical practices may support its development.

Rethinking the Theory of Upbringing in the Digital Age: A Mixed-Methods Investigation of Values, Character Development, and Digital Citizenship

Zhong Yangyang — 2026-07-25

Children and adolescents increasingly develop values, identities, relationships, and moral judgments across interconnected family, school, peer, and digital environments. Yet theories of upbringing have only partially accounted for how digital platforms and online communities reshape these formative processes. This paper proposes a Digital-Age Upbringing Framework that integrates educational theories of upbringing with research on character and values education, digital citizenship, parental mediation, and young people’s digital experiences. Drawing on diverse educational traditions including Erziehung and Bildung, Islamic tarbiyah, and Confucian traditions of cultivation the framework conceptualizes upbringing as a culturally situated process of human formation rather than the transmission of predetermined values. It addresses a central theoretical gap: scholarship on upbringing, character and values education, family influence, and digital citizenship has largely developed across partially disconnected research traditions, leaving their interactions insufficiently theorized. To examine these relationships empirically, the paper specifies a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design involving adolescents aged 12–17 across culturally distinct educational contexts. The quantitative phase examines relationships among school-based upbringing, parental mediation, digital experiences, values orientation, character development, and digital citizenship; the qualitative phase investigates how adolescents, parents, and educators interpret the mechanisms underlying these relationships. Integration across phases is designed to identify convergence, divergence, and context-dependent explanations. Particular attention is given to cross-cultural interpretation and the ethical requirements of research involving minors and digital behavior. The principal contribution is a theoretically grounded and empirically testable model that conceptualizes family, school, and digital environments as interacting contexts of upbringing, providing a basis for examining how contemporary educational environments shape values, character, and responsible participation in digital society.

Beyond Academic Achievement: A Holistic Educational Development Model Integrating Cognitive, Social-Emotional, and Character Development

Zhong Yangyang — 2026-07-25

Abstract: Educational effectiveness continues to be evaluated predominantly through academic achievement, despite longstanding recognition that schooling contributes to broader human development. This paper proposes the Holistic Educational Development Model (HEDM), an integrative framework for conceptualizing cognitive, social-emotional, and character development as distinct but interconnected educational domains. Drawing on research on cognitive and academic development, social-emotional learning, character and values education, self-regulation, well-being, flourishing, and whole-child education, the paper examines key theoretical tensions concerning competence and virtue, achievement and well-being, cultural specificity, and the measurement of multidimensional development. HEDM specifies three developmental domains, the educational conditions that may support them including instructional quality, school climate, teacher–student relationships, assessment practices, and co-curricular opportunities and the processes through which these conditions may operate, particularly engagement, self-regulation, and belonging. The paper further proposes a longitudinal multilevel research design for examining the framework, including construct validation, measurement invariance, structural relationships, and developmental profiles. A central contribution is its rejection of reducing holistic development to a single composite score; instead, HEDM emphasizes multidimensional domain scores and developmental profiles that preserve theoretically meaningful differences among students. The framework also avoids assuming that broader development necessarily produces higher academic achievement, allowing potential complementarities and trade-offs among developmental outcomes to be examined empirically. HEDM thus provides a theoretically integrated and empirically testable framework for evaluating educational effectiveness beyond academic achievement.