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Target markets of new product brands (niche customers) differ from those of existing product brands (mainstream customers) using conventional new product brand development strategy. The purpose of this paper is to contend that acculturation in the form of cultural pluralism exists in the marketplace and substantiates that contention through an investigation of consumer behavior outcomes resulting from the development of new product brands that target both mainstream and niche consumers through product brand crossover, an alternative product brand development strategy that leverages on cultural pluralism.

A between-subjects experiment was conducted to test whether consumers differ in their behavioral intentions toward existing and new product brands developed through product brand crossover. The experiments include marketing situations of matching and mismatching product brands and marketing communications in the form of marketing messages and advertising images.

The results show that consumers – in general and in segmented groups – do not differ in behavioral intentions toward existing and new product brands as a result of product brand crossover. Matching and mismatching product brands and marketing communications in the form of marketing messages and advertising images do not produce significant effects on behavioral intentions.

This paper offers fresh evidence showing that acculturation in the form of cultural pluralism exists in the marketplace and introduces a new concept in the form of product brand crossover that acknowledges and leverages on cultural pluralism as an alternative approach for new product brand development.

This study investigates the role of national culture on the implementation and effectiveness of quality management practices. Specifically, the authors examine the dual roles of two of Hofstede's national culture dimensions (individualism and indulgence) in driving the implementation of people management practices and in moderating the relationship between people management and product quality performance.

The authors’ dataset combines a survey of 976 firms from 22 countries with Hofstede's national culture index. A multi-level analysis, at firm and country levels, is used for investigating the interplay between two dimensions of national culture (individualism and indulgence) on people management practices and product quality performance.

The authors' findings show the negative relationship between indulgence (at country level) and people management practices (at firm level) while individualism (at country level) strengthens the relationship between people management and product quality performance (at firm level). Furthermore, the finding shows that the joint interaction between individualism and indulgence (at country level) moderates the relationship between people management and product quality performance (at firm level) where the relationship is strongest when individualism is high and indulgence is low.

Understanding the interplay between national culture and management practices is important for managers in making decisions on the practices managers should implement under different cultural contexts to gain the expected outcomes.

The authors' results challenge the universalist view that suggests that quality management practices (in this case people management practices) can be applied in any context effectively to achieve high product quality performance by showing that facets of national culture influence the implementation and effectiveness of people management practices and performance. The results also provide a fresh perspective on the role of indulgence, given that it is the newest dimension in Hofstede's framework. The authors also extend previous studies which commonly only examine the main and not interactive effects of different dimensions of national culture.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the direct effect of external pressure on environmental outcomes and manufacturing performance and examine the mediating effect of sustainable management practice.

This study draws upon institutional theory and resource-based view to understand how factors such as external pressure and sustainable management relate with environmental outcomes and manufacturing performance. The model specifies previously unexplored direct and mediating relationships between external pressure, sustainable management, environmental outcomes and manufacturing performance. The empirical analysis is based on data collected from the sixth edition of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey. The research hypotheses are tested using structural equation modelling.

Results show that while there is a significant direct and mediating relationship between external pressure, adoption of formal sustainability programmes and environmental outcomes, such significant relationships do not exist with manufacturing performance.

The study shows that external pressure can influence adoption of sustainable practices but this does not necessarily lead to an improvement in manufacturing performance. As such managers need to identify the actual benefits of sustainability and weigh them up against costs of implementing such programmes.

The relationship between the adoption of sustainable practices and organisational performance is a complex one. In contrast to previous studies, this study found that while external pressure and sustainable management relate positively with environmental outcomes, no such relationship exists with manufacturing performance. This raises a number of question marks over naive implementation of sustainable strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the first three dimensions of the triple helix model. The focus of this paper is to study and develop a model for the role and functions performed by a university to nurture undergraduate student technopreneur development.

This study provides a comprehensive understanding of the process of the technopreneurship program undertaken by Multimedia University (MMU) in 1999‐2005. The analysis is based on the self‐administered questionnaires, qualitative interviews, internal documents, web sites and direct observation. Electronic questionnaires are e‐mailed to 24 founders of start‐ups to explore their views on the entrepreneurial support structures in MMU.

The success of MMU in undertaking the technopreneurship programs is the result of the organization structure, management's policies and priorities which are concentrated on creating and sustaining the necessary support structures to foster undergraduate student entrepreneurial activities.

A very interesting and useful information and impartial for new university planning to establish a culture of new enterprise creation within a university. It should be noted that though this is a study of various aspects of the success of MMU in undertaking technopreneurship programs, however, this will have an implication of how triple helix strategic model can be implemented in China.

Many universities have focused more on linkages of entrepreneurship and commercial‐valued research involving academic staff and postgraduate students rather than undergraduate student entrepreneurship. It is believed that MMU is one of the few entrepreneurial universities which focuses on undergraduate students, who, from enrollment to graduation, are offered constant encouragement, training and support for their efforts to conceive and start up business enterprises. This paper is intended to share the experiences of MMU in fostering and supporting undergraduate student technopreneurship programs in a triple helix model. This paper is intended to share the experiences of MMU in fostering and supporting undergraduate student technopreneurship programs in a triple helix model with readers in China and out of China who have interest on the effective implementation of the university ‐ government ‐ industry strategic partnership.

Science and technology is the bedrock in developing a knowledge‐based economy. Immense changes will be spawned by the development of science and technology. Today, China's remarkable growth has brought a great interest to the rest of the world in fostering her economic development through scientific research and technology acquisition. Whether China will be the world leader in science and technology remains a puzzle. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to examine the challenges of the science and technology development in strengthening China's economic growth. In this context, the purpose of the study is to provide a conceptual framework for the strategic management of science and technology policy in China.

This study was conducted based on the past and present observations and literature review.

Although the concept of “policy for science” plays a pivotal role in the technology progress in China, the concept of “science for policy” should be emphasized. Hence, a unified policy framework where the concepts of “science for policy” and “policy for science” have to be incorporated and synchronized in tackling the challenges faced by current practices.

The commitment in developing an “innovation‐oriented society” in the twenty‐first century, it is essential to lay the foundation for the framework to understand the science and technology policy management in stimulating the Chinese economic growth. The framework could be served as the basis for policy formulation and policy analysis.

There are very few studies on the impact of job attitude on knowledge sharing. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of job involvement, job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) on employees' knowledge sharing behaviour.

This research is based on a survey of 116 Information Systems personnel in Malaysia. Structural equation modelling is used to test the hypothesis.

The results show that job involvement, job satisfaction and OCB are independent and positively related to employees' knowledge sharing behaviour. However, organisational commitment has a negative relationship with knowledge sharing behaviour. It is found that OCB is not a significant mediator between job involvement, job satisfaction organisational commitment and knowledge sharing behaviour.

It is widely reported that knowledge workers may not be willing to share with others since they can always argue that it is not their job to share. Therefore, knowledge sharing can be regarded as an extra job. OCB is an extra‐role behaviour which is especially relevant to research on knowledge sharing. Theories and research methods in OCB may be used in future research on knowledge sharing.

Given the importance of knowledge sharing in today's competitive business world, this study provides a broader understanding of different dimensions of job attitudes in relation to employees' knowledge sharing behaviours. Our findings suggest that organisational administrators and managers should look into ways of improving the levels of job satisfaction, job involvement, and OCB in order to facilitate knowledge sharing behaviour.

This study makes two distinct additions to the organisational behaviour and knowledge sharing literature. First, job attitudes appear to be significantly related to knowledge sharing behaviour, addressing a research gap in the literature of knowledge sharing and employee attitudes. Second, this study reveals that OCB directly affects knowledge sharing but it does not mediate employees' job attitudes to promote knowledge sharing behaviours.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model to examine the multidimensionality of total quality management (TQM) practices and its impact on role stressors.

The background of TQM philosophy and theory of role stressors serve as starting‐points to develop the conceptual model. From the extensive literature review, six practices of TQM and two components of role stressors were identified to construct the model.

The model based on TQM with respect to role stressors provides a basis for assessing the level of role conflict and role ambiguity under which the use of different aspects of TQM should be retained or revised. This finding suggests that TQM is not a panacea that can be unthinkingly applied, but must be practised with a clear sense of the impact on role stressors.

Given that role stressors are often detrimental to organizational functional efficiency, it is appropriate for management to invest time and effort to diagnose effects of implementation of TQM practices on role stressors. For this analysis, this model will prove valuable.

This conceptual model provides an insightful foundation for the analysis of multidimensionality of TQM practices on role stressors. The model examines the independent influences of TQM practices on role stressors and treats role conflict and role ambiguity as dependent variables. This design stands in contrast to other researchers' study of conflict and ambiguity as independent variables.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the multidimensionality of total quality management (TQM) practices and its relationship with production workers' job satisfaction in the Malaysian electrical and electronics (E&E) industry context.

Data for this study were collected using a self‐administered questionnaire that was distributed to 520 production workers in three major E&E organizations in Malaysia. Of the 520 questionnaires posted, 173 usable questionnaires were returned, yielding a response rate of 33.26 percent. The correlation and multiple regression analyses were applied to test the theoretical model and the relationship between TQM practices and job satisfaction.

The results revealed that not all TQM practices enhanced production workers' job satisfaction. Only organization culture and teamwork showed a positive relationship with the production workers' job satisfaction. It was found that when teamwork was perceived as a dominant TQM practice, improvement in production workers' job satisfaction levels was significant.

The findings prescribed potential implications for top management to review their TQM dimensions, consistent with the training needs of the employees within the organizations. Hence, production workers will be more likely to perform better and to feel a higher level of satisfaction towards the organizations.

The study has contributed in advancing the TQM literature with a better understanding of the multidimensionality of TQM practices and its association with production workers' job satisfaction that would facilitate more quality management research in developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated model of total quality management (TQM) and human resource management (HRM) to elucidate the influence of TQM and HRM practices on knowledge management (KM) activities.

The theory of KM serves as a starting‐point to develop the integrated conceptual model linking TQM and HRM aspects. Based on an extensive review of the current literature, three practices of TQM and three practices of HRM are integrated in an organized manner to examine the influence of TQM and HRM practices on KM activities.

These findings provide a basis for developing a model to advance the HRM, TQM and KM research literature.

The practical implication of this study could be useful for business managers, who want to enhance organizational KM activities through implementing HRM and TQM practices that support their organization's KM efforts.

This paper makes a significant contribution by developing an integrated HRM and TQM model as a methodological example which can be useful for tracking the degree of HRM and TQM effects on KM activities. Organizations could use this framework to do a pre‐test baseline measurement, and then periodically re‐assess the effects of any HRM and TQM change.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the total quality management (TQM) practices of both manufacturing and service firms in order to determine the relationship between the multidimensionality of TQM practices and role conflict of employees.

Questionnaires are distributed to 433 employees of 98 different firms from manufacturing and service industries in Malaysia.

The results support significant negative correlation among all TQM practices (i.e. leadership, strategic planning, customer focus, human resource focus, process management and information analysis) and role conflict. By employing multiple regression analysis, leadership, process management and information analysis are found to have significant and negative relationship with role conflict. Human resource focus is reported to have a significant and positive relationship with role conflict.

This model is ideal for practical usage by managers to evaluate the perceptions of role conflict of employees in TQM‐oriented firms. The findings suggest that firms should look into ways of developing the major roles of leadership and process management as well as improving efficient use of information analysis in order to reduce the detrimental role conflict of employees. This finding may also help administrators and individuals to attain a fine‐grained understanding of different dimensions of TQM in relation to role conflict.

TQM practices appear to be related to role conflict, addressing an apparent noticeable gap in the literature of TQM and the psychological well‐being of employees. This paper also lays the foundation for formation of a theoretically based model which integrates the elements of TQM and role conflict.