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Article
Publication date: 24 August 2020

Lingling Wang, Wenhong Zhao, Zelong Wei and Changbao Zhou

This paper aims to explore how intra-industry entrepreneurial experience and failure entrepreneurial experience affect novelty-centered business model design in a new venture…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore how intra-industry entrepreneurial experience and failure entrepreneurial experience affect novelty-centered business model design in a new venture. Moreover, the authors also consider whether the contingent value of entrepreneurial experience may differ according to competitive intensity.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey via questionnaire was conducted with 290 entrepreneurs and top managers from Chinese new ventures that provided the research data. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the proposed theoretical hypotheses.

Findings

The empirical results indicate that intra-industry entrepreneurial experience has an inverted U-shaped effect on novelty-centered business model design, whereas failure entrepreneurial experience has a negative effect on novelty-centered business model design. Furthermore, the authors also find that competitive intensity weakens the inverted U-shaped effect of intra-industry entrepreneurial experience on novelty-centered business model design.

Originality/value

This study offers new insights into the effects of intra-industry entrepreneurial experience and failure entrepreneurial experience on novelty-centered business model design and provides useful suggestions for new ventures to promote business model design.

Details

Chinese Management Studies, vol. 15 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-614X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 March 2021

Wenhong Zhao, Wenwei Zhang and Chengli Shu

Social network theory emphasizes that, to acquire needed resources, new ventures should cultivate industrial connections (intra-industry ties and extra-industry ties). In the…

Abstract

Purpose

Social network theory emphasizes that, to acquire needed resources, new ventures should cultivate industrial connections (intra-industry ties and extra-industry ties). In the meanwhile human capital theory focuses on entrepreneurs' employment experience, especially with respect to its breadth and depth. This study examines ties and experience to determine whether, in combination, they have positive or negative effects on resource acquisition in new ventures.

Design/methodology/approach

This study tests research hypotheses using questionnaire survey data with a sample of entrepreneurs in new ventures. Multivariate regression analysis is used to analyze the data.

Findings

Combining intra-industry ties and experience breadth or extra-industry ties and experience depth affects resource acquisition positively, whereas combining intra-industry ties and experience depth or extra-industry ties and experience breadth affects resource acquisition negatively.

Research limitations/implications

Conclusions may be constrained by the limited sample size and source. Rather, the impact of the study lies in its identification of the effects of interaction between network ties and entrepreneurs' experience on resource acquisition. Future research can explore the effects of interaction between other dimensions of network ties and a range of entrepreneurs' experience characteristics on resource acquisition.

Practical implications

Entrepreneurs are provided with effective strategies to make use of their ventures' network ties and their personal accumulated experience in the process of obtaining resources.

Originality/value

The findings enrich the entrepreneurship literature by providing a more nuanced understanding of how and when new ventures' industry ties and entrepreneurs' employment experience together influence resource acquisition.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 59 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2015

Wenhong Zhao and Lingling Wang

– This study aims to examine how the interactions between the entrepreneur’s technical and market knowledge and the intra- and extra-industry ties affect resources acquisition.

1033

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine how the interactions between the entrepreneur’s technical and market knowledge and the intra- and extra-industry ties affect resources acquisition.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors made a questionnaire from a sample of 300 high-technology companies located in the incubator in Xi’an, of which 165 were usable, and the final response rate was 55 per cent, the authors used optimal scaling regression analyses to analyze the data and test the hypotheses.

Findings

There is a positive relationship between the entrepreneurs’ knowledge and the resources acquisition. The effects of the technical knowledge and the market knowledge are contingent on the intra-industry ties and the extra-industry ties in different ways. In particular, an entrepreneur with technical knowledge has an easier access to required resources from the intra-industry ties than extra-industry ties. In contrast, an entrepreneur with market knowledge can obtain more easily the needed resources from the extra-industry ties than the intra-industry ties.

Originality/value

The paper conducted an empirical test of how the interactions between the entrepreneurs’ knowledge and industry ties affect the resources acquisition in the context of China’s emerging economy, which has not been studied in the current literature. This paper provides implications for entrepreneurs with technical and market knowledge in finding the right way to obtain needed resources through their industry ties.

Details

Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, vol. 7 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2053-4604

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 June 2010

Zhao Wenhong and Fan Liuying

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of entrepreneurial thinking systems on risk‐taking propensity and entrepreneurial behavior.

3629

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of entrepreneurial thinking systems on risk‐taking propensity and entrepreneurial behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

The research was conducted using an original data set of 231 entrepreneurs in China. The data were analyzed through regressing models.

Findings

It is found that, in China, the experiential system has a positive impact on risk‐taking propensity yet a negative impact on entrepreneurial behavior; however, the rational system has a negative impact on risk‐taking propensity yet a positive impact on entrepreneurial behavior.

Research limitations/implications

This paper focuses on entrepreneurs in a specific geographical region, China. Despite the hypothesis, the impact of thinking systems on entrepreneurial behavior highlights the importance of the rational system.

Originality/value

Research of entrepreneurs by foreign scholars has focused on the risk‐perception perspective, and the only national research is based on the authors' subjective experience and lacks an empirical basis. Based on Western theory, this paper empirically studies the impact of entrepreneurial thinking systems on risk‐taking propensity and entrepreneurial behavior in China.

Details

Journal of Chinese Entrepreneurship, vol. 2 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-1396

Keywords

Content available
636

Abstract

Details

Journal of Chinese Entrepreneurship, vol. 2 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-1396

Article
Publication date: 4 June 2024

Xiuping Lai, Wenhong Zhang and Yapu Zhao

Changes in regulation systems make professional organizations more likely to undergo rapid, profound and radical change. The issue of how micro-institutional change in…

Abstract

Purpose

Changes in regulation systems make professional organizations more likely to undergo rapid, profound and radical change. The issue of how micro-institutional change in professional organizations can be carried out is somewhat ignored.

Design/methodology/approach

We conducted a process study of a primary hospital in China to trace a pathway through which low-status professionals successfully proceed with radical change at the micro-level.

Findings

We present a model involving three strategies that, reconfiguring jurisdictional boundaries in combination, activate low-status professionals' long-standing implicit jurisdictions: expertise redefinition, value reorientation and promotion.

Research limitations/implications

Our study contributes to understanding how low-status professionals reconcile needs for change with contradictions from the core attributes and ambiguities of professional work. Rather than mixed practices enhancing the role of dominant professions, a desire to separate jurisdiction space opens up the access of newly dominant experts.

Originality/value

Changes in the regulation system make professional organizations more likely to undergo rapid, profound and radical change. The issue of how micro-institutional change in professional organizations can be carried out is somewhat ignored.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 May 2017

Yapu Zhao, Wenhong Zhang, Depeng Liu, Fenghua Bao and Longwei Tian

Given the importance of frontline employees in implementing the service strategy, the purpose of this paper is to examine whether service-orientated human resource management…

Abstract

Purpose

Given the importance of frontline employees in implementing the service strategy, the purpose of this paper is to examine whether service-orientated human resource management (SHRM) practices are important organizational antecedents to help manufacturing firms gain the benefit of the service strategy. Furthermore, the paper also explores whether SHRM practices promote manufacturing firms’ performance through demand-side search.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employs survey methodology to examine a research model that explores whether and how SHRM practices influence manufacturing firms’ performance through demand-side search. Data from 151 high-tech manufacturing firms in a science park of China are analyzed to test the research model.

Findings

This study finds that SHRM practices can enhance manufacturing firms’ performance, and demand-side search plays a mediating role in this relationship.

Research limitations/implications

Depending on a single science park in China to provide cross-sectional subjective data for the core variables and the choice of firms limits the capacity to generalize the findings.

Practical implications

These findings suggest that during transition to service business model, manufacturing firms should design supported organizational systems, especially SHRM practices, and commit to demand-side search as an efficient means to gain the benefit of the service strategy.

Originality/value

The study highlights the crucial role of SHRM practices in the implementation of the service strategy, as well as the mediating role of demand-side search. These results provide some new insights to explain the inconsistent findings in the servitization literature.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 55 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 September 2017

Wenhong Zhang, Yapu Zhao, Longwei Tian and Dong Liu

The purpose of this paper is to explore how boundary-spanning demand-side search (BSDSS) fuels radical technological innovations as well as how innovation appropriability…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how boundary-spanning demand-side search (BSDSS) fuels radical technological innovations as well as how innovation appropriability moderates this relationship. In particular, based on Teece’s (1986) argument regarding the appropriability of innovation, the authors divide factors to influence innovation appropriability into two types: external institution related and internal capability related.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employs a survey methodology. Specifically, the authors collected a sample composed of 150 high-tech manufacturing Chinese firms.

Findings

Results show that BSDSS has a positive effect on radical technological innovations. Further, the authors find that dysfunctional competition and political ties negatively moderate the main effect, whereas firms’ legal and IPRs protection capabilities positively moderate the main effect.

Research limitations/implications

One major limitation is that the findings are based on data derived from Chinese firms, which may limit the generalization of the findings.

Practical implications

The findings suggest that firms competing Chinese market, both Chinese and foreign firms, should actively leverage BSDSS to boost radical technological innovations. Chinese firms should pay attention to the negative roles of appropriability hazards originating from external institutional environment. Foreign firms in Chinese market should be cautious on potential dysfunctional competition from local competitors, such as imitation and intelligence property violation, and enhance appropriability through building internal capabilities, such as legal and IPRs capabilities.

Originality/value

The study highlights the crucial roles of BSDSS in radical technological innovations, as well as the moderating roles of innovation appropriability. These results provide new insights into the drivers of radical technological innovations.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 55 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2021

Yapu Zhao, Dong Liu, Wenhong Zhang and Silei Chen

This paper aims to investigate how top management service commitment (TSC) affects two dimensions of new product development (NPD), speed and product innovativeness, and to…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate how top management service commitment (TSC) affects two dimensions of new product development (NPD), speed and product innovativeness, and to examine how dysfunctional competition moderates the effects in emerging economies.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 151 high-tech manufacturing firms in China. In one firm, two different top managers were surveyed to reduce the common method variance. The authors used the seemingly unrelated regression approach to test the hypotheses.

Findings

First, TSC negatively influences product innovativeness, an effect that dysfunctional competition attenuates. Second, despite not being significantly positive as hypothesized, the direct effect of TSC on NPD speed remains positive when dysfunctional competition is high rather than low. Third, the findings reveal that product innovativeness increases firm performance, but NPD speed shows no similar effect.

Practical implications

First, top managers should pay attention to the synergistic effect between industrial services and product businesses. Second, manufacturing firms in developing countries need to implement servitization when facing unlawful competitive behaviors.

Originality/value

In literature, the effect of industrial services on NPD is unclear. The present study enriches literature by connecting servitization with NPD and by focusing on the importance of top managers to the implementation of servitization. In addition, the authors extend the servitization literature to emerging economies and thereby provide significant insights into this context.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 37 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 August 2019

Beilei Dang, Wenhong Zhang, Silei Chen, Taiwen Feng and Yapu Zhao

The purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents of demand-side search in service strategy of manufacturing firms. In particular, this study examines whether…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents of demand-side search in service strategy of manufacturing firms. In particular, this study examines whether service-oriented human resource management (HRM) practices promote demand-side search by enhancing firms’ market capability as well as how top management service commitment and service organizing moderates this relationship in manufacturing firms.

Design/methodology/approach

To test this research model, this study obtains survey data from two distinct informants of 279 manufacturing firms in China. Data were collected applying a standard questionnaire in a five-point Likert scale. The hypotheses are tested using hierarchical regression analysis and partial least squares.

Findings

Results show that service-oriented HRM practices can promote demand-side search by enhancing firms’ market capability. Furthermore, it is found that top management service commitment negatively moderates the relationship between service-orientated HRM practices and demand-side search, while service organizing positively moderates this relationship.

Research limitations/implications

Depending on cross-sectional subjective data for the core variables and the choice of Chinese manufacturing firms limit the capacity to generalize the findings.

Practical implications

This research suggests that service-oriented HRM practices are important drivers of demand-side search activities and to take advantage of service-oriented HRM practices, firms should commit to market capability development. In addition, it is better to match service-oriented HRM practices with other service-oriented organizational parameters such as top management service commitment and service organizing.

Originality/value

The study highlights the crucial role of service-oriented HRM practices in demand-side search, the mediating role of market capability and the moderating role of other service-oriented organizational parameters such as top management service commitment and service organizing. This study advances research on knowledge search, servitization and strategic HRM.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 34 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

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