Contemporary business and management research in China has advanced rapidly, making significant strides in the introduction of theoretical frameworks, research methodologies, local theory development, and practical applications. Much of this research continues to draw on Western theories, and since the reform and opening up, Chinese management research has evolved through distinct stages of globalization and localization. Today, it faces new challenges amid anti-globalization trends. At this critical juncture, the key question is whether China should continue integrating Western theories or capitalize on the opportunity to develop indigenous management theories. This paper explores the differences in scientific development concepts and focuses between China and the West, the historical trajectory of Chinese management research, and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. To enhance China's contribution to global management research, we propose that it is essential to sustain international collaboration, deepen understanding of frontline enterprise practices, promote micro-level research and interpretation with Chinese characteristics, and cultivate an open academic community, while optimizing the research evaluation system.

Biped wall-climbing robots (BWCRs) serve as viable alternatives to human workers for inspection and maintenance tasks within three-dimensional (3D) curtain wall environments. However, autonomous climbing in such environments presents significant challenges, particularly related to localization and navigation. This paper presents a pioneering navigation framework tailored for BWCRs to navigate through 3D curtain wall environments. The framework comprises three essential stages: Building Information Model (BIM)-based map extraction, 3D climbing path planning (based on our previous work), and path tracking. An algorithm is developed to extract a detailed 3D map from the BIM, including structural elements such as walls, frames, and ArUco markers. This generated map is input into a proposed path planner to compute a viable climbing motion. For path tracking during actual climbing, an ArUco marker-based global localization method is introduced to estimate the pose of the robot, enabling adjustments to the target foothold by comparing desired and actual poses. The conducted experiments validate the feasibility and efficacy of the proposed navigation framework and associated algorithms, aiming to enhance the autonomous climbing capability of BWCRs.

Itonde Kakoma is the President and CEO of Interpeace. Prior to Interpeace, he served as the Permanent Representative of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to the African Union and International Organizations (2021–23). Previously, Mr Kakoma served in various leadership capacities on matters of international peace mediation, including as Director for Global Strategy and member of the leadership team at CMI – Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation. Additionally, Mr Kakoma was Assistant Director for the Conflict Resolution Programme at the Carter Center, managing a portfolio of the Center's peace initiatives and supporting former president Carter's back-channel diplomatic efforts. He is an experienced facilitator and moderator for high-level peace processes and dialogue fora and has expertise in mediation, negotiation, process design, humanitarian diplomacy and transitional justice.

The notion of solidarity, although not new to the humanitarian sector, has re-emerged in recent discussions about effective and ethical humanitarian action, particularly in contexts such as Ukraine and Myanmar where the traditional humanitarian principles have been facing certain pressures. Because solidarity appears as a good but can also involve selectivity and privilege, and because it risks continued militarism and normalization of civilians participating within that militarism, the notion of solidarity merits rich and rigorous thinking. This article explores how the notion of solidarity is being utilized by those currently re-emphasizing its importance and what it might mean in practice in today's humanitarian contexts. The article argues that if solidary action involves not only a political stance but solidary working methods, the recent calls for solidarity demand respect for the variety of principles and practices within the humanitarian ecosystem, while nevertheless upholding mutual obligations owed within that professional community – that is, within careful limits as to what is considered humanitarian action.

We consider the equivariant Kasparov category associated to an étale groupoid, and by leveraging its triangulated structure we study its localization at the ‘weakly contractible’ objects, extending previous work by R. Meyer and R. Nest. We prove the subcategory of weakly contractible objects is complementary to the localizing subcategory of projective objects, which are defined in terms of ‘compactly induced’ algebras with respect to certain proper subgroupoids related to isotropy. The resulting ‘strong’ Baum–Connes conjecture implies the classical one, and its formulation clarifies several permanence properties and other functorial statements. We present multiple applications, including consequences for the Universal Coefficient Theorem, a generalized ‘going-down’ principle, injectivity results for groupoids that are amenable at infinity, the Baum–Connes conjecture for group bundles, and a result about the invariance of K-groups of twisted groupoid $C^*$-algebras under homotopy of twists.

We study spaces of continuous functions and sections with domain a paracompact Hausdorff k-space $X$ and range a nilpotent CW complex $Y$, with emphasis on localization at a set of primes. For $\mathop {\rm map}\nolimits _\phi (X,\,Y)$, the space of maps with prescribed restriction $\phi$ on a suitable subspace $A\subset X$, we construct a natural spectral sequence of groups that converges to $\pi _*(\mathop {\rm map}\nolimits _\phi (X,\,Y))$ and allows for detection of localization on the level of $E^2$. Our applications extend and unify the previously known results.

In the early 2000s, California-based Guayakí popularized the caffeinated drink, yerba mate, among young people and creative types. With revenues of $100 million, Guayakí dominates the U.S. market where it is synonymous with yerba mate. This essay explores how Guayakí transformed a foreign product with deep local meaning, widespread popularity, and a long history in southern South America from a shared beverage and social practice into a healthy energy drink. Typically, localization entails multinational companies and local consumers adapting and giving new meanings to an exotic foreign product or brand. In contrast, local entrepreneurs radically changed yerba mate while preserving part of its narrative. Guayakí promotes product authenticity based on a narrative of South American Indigenous origins, stimulating qualities, and health benefits that fits with superfoods, while a narrative of green capitalism promotes brand authenticity. But that was not enough to popularize yerba mate. The product had to be adapted to consumer taste preferences and values that challenge the foundational ideas of superfoods and green capitalism. As a result of consumer input acquired through grassroots marketing, Guayakí transformed a shared infusion into something closer to a soft drink—a pre-prepared, individual-sized beverage served in a single-use bottle or can with flavoring and sugar levels tailored to U.S. consumers. The essay exposes the role of local entrepreneurs and consumers in shaping product development and localization. It complicates our understanding of product authenticity and brand authenticity while exposing the limitations of green capitalism, ethical consumerism, and activist entrepreneurship.

We extend the group-theoretic notion of conditional flatness for a localization functor to any pointed category, and investigate it in the context of homological categories and of semi-abelian categories. In the presence of functorial fiberwise localization, analogous results to those obtained in the category of groups hold, and we provide existence theorems for certain localization functors in specific semi-abelian categories. We prove that a Birkhoff subcategory of an ideal determined category yields a conditionally flat localization, and explain how conditional flatness corresponds to the property of admissibility of an adjunction from the point of view of categorical Galois theory. Under the assumption of fiberwise localization, we give a simple criterion to determine when a (normal epi)-reflection is a torsion-free reflection. This is shown to apply, in particular, to nullification functors in any semi-abelian variety of universal algebras. We also relate semi-left-exactness for a localization functor L with what is called right properness for the L-local model structure.