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Integrating transaction costs economics and task-technology fit theory, this study distinguishes two categories of social media–enabled interactions, namely task-related interactions and tie-related interactions, and explores the match between these two and firms' use of contracts in achieving safeguarding and coordinating purposes in interfirm governance.

Two studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. In Study 1, this study collaborated with a professional market research firm and collected responses from Chinese manufacturing firms in a survey. In Study 2, this study designed a scenario-based experiment and collected 239 participants from the Credamo platform.

This study categorized social media–enabled interactions into task-related interactions and tie-related interactions and conducted two studies to reveal that the safeguarding purpose of contract specificity is amplified by tie-related interactions, whereas the coordinating purpose of contract specificity is strengthened by task-related interactions.

This study assumes that firms permit and encourage the use of social media. However, some firms might prohibit the use of social media due to risk issues, or their partners may be prohibited from using social media.

Given that social media–enabled interactions have joint effects with contracts in achieving safeguarding and coordinating purposes, a firm's employees should match their goals with an appropriate type of social media–enabled interactions.

This study enriches the interfirm governance literature by uncovering the roles of these two types of interactions in matching contract specificity to achieve safeguarding and coordinating purposes, which provides actionable insights for managers in governing interfirm relationships.

This study aims to explore whether and how the two potential antecedents (i.e. relationship quality at the dyadic level and network density at the network level) affect firms’ internet-interactive capability (FIIC), referring to the capability of a specific firm to communicate and interact with the relevant partner firms on the basis of internet-interactive technologies in the internet environment and, at the same time, the following influence of FIIC on collaborative activities (i.e. joint planning and joint problem-solving).

This study designed a questionnaire and collected data on-site from 400 manufacturers. SmartPLS is used to validate the research model.

The results suggest that the dyadic relationship quality and network density of the partner group are both positively connected with a firm’s FIIC. Besides, FIIC is positively related to collaborative activities with its partners.

Given the nature of our data (i.e. cross-sectional), the authors can collect longitudinal or experimental data to retest the hypotheses.

This study gives certain guidance for firms to be aware of the factors that motivate FIIC and use their FIIC to influence their employees’ collaborative activities in their relationships with partners, thereby promoting cooperation performance.

This study attempts to extend the resource-based theory based on the logic of motivation-capability by exploring the potential antecedents of FIIC and makes contributions to the current studies on the antecedents of FIIC, which provides actionable insights for firms to play the role of FIIC in interfirm interactions.

Research has shown that when the original and the sale prices were displayed in a horizontal direction, with the sale price to the right (“Original price of $349.99/Sale price $239.99”), consumers are more likely to initiate a subtraction task to calculate the amount of the discount; and this subtraction effect would lead to better consumer value perception than if the sale price was to the left. However, fewer scholars have questioned whether the subtraction effect would still operate if the reference-price ads line up in a vertical direction? The aim of this research is to understand how different formations of reference-price ads may affect consumers' price perception and buying intention. Interestingly, positive effects on buying intention and value perceptions disappeared when buyers were shown a dollars-saved cue, rather than the lineup of original and sale prices.

Three experiments were conducted to test the hypotheses.

The results of the experiments demonstrate that when the sale price is displayed above the original price, consumers' price perception and buying intention are higher than what is placed below it.

When written horizontally, Mandarin and Japanese language text are almost always written left-to-right, with multiple rows progressing downward, as in standard English text. Notably, the right-to-left written form for Mandarin and Japanese language only happens by writing in a vertically and multiple-columned context. In particular, the format of reference-price ads in our research is considered to be a generally single column text only. Therefore, its writing system has almost no difference from the English one. However, our hypothesis does not apply to the Arabic world due to the right-to-left nature of the Arabic writing system.

Our results may inform consumers whether their cognition, which influences them not to make irrational decisions, is in turn influenced by sale price display location. Consumers should be reminded that next time they see the smaller number (sale price) they should not be too excited and forget to properly consider the original price. They should think more and consider the distance to the shop or the quality of the product before buying anything. If a product is sold in two different shops and the farther one displays the sale price above the original price but the nearer one displays the sale price below the original price, prolonging the decision time enables consumers to decrease their buying costs, such as the cost of fuel.

This is one of the first studies to discuss the influence of the price location in a vertical direction on price perception and buying intention.

Despite the relatively long research continuum on IT capability and performance, the “IT capability-performance” link has remained hazy especially related to the mediating role of IT-based communication and networking overall. Therefore, this study investigates how IT capability affects Internet interactive practice and how it further affects marketing effectiveness and firm success.

The authors collected the survey data from 504 manufacturers in China, and structural equation modeling is used to test the hypotheses.

The results indicate that (1) IT capability has positive effects on both interorganizational systems (IOS)-enabled and social media (SM)-enabled interactive practice; (2) IOS-enabled interactive practice has a significant positive effect on both marketing and financial performance while SM-enabled interactive practice has a positive effect on marketing performance but no effect on financial performance; (3) IOS-enabled interactive practice mediates the effect of IT capability on marketing and financial performance while SM-enabled interactive practice only mediates the effect of IT capability on marketing performance; (4) marketing performance mediates the impact of IOS-enabled and SM-enabled interactive practice on financial performance.

This study has highlighted the role of social media practice in the relationship between IT capability and firm performance, which makes certain theoretical contributions to the existing research.

Based on social network theory and the literature of contract governance, the purpose of this study is to explore how distributors’ “banding together” (network intensity) affects contract governance (detailed contracts), which, in turn, influences channel conflict and simultaneously tests the moderating effect of network centrality.

The authors collect the data from the side of 288 manufacturers.

This study finds that, first, distributors’ network intensity positively affects detailed contracts between manufacturers and distributors; second, detailed contracts, in turn, declines channel conflict; and third, network centrality will weaken the positive influence of network density on detailed contracts. In addition, an ex post analysis finds that detailed contracts play a negative mediating role between distributors’ network density and channel conflict and this negative mediating effect would be weakened by distributors’ network centrality.

The current study not only helps to make up for the shortcomings of using the dyadic analysis paradigm to analyze channel behavior but also helps manufacturers to understand and respond to the phenomenon of distributors’ “banding together” comprehensively and deeply.

Drawing on self-determination theory, this study explored how leader humility affected employees' proactive behavior through satisfying their psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness. Furthermore, based on a contingency view, this paper suggested Chinese traditionality as a significant boundary condition for the effects of leader humility.

Data were collected from 465 employees and 111 direct supervisors in China using a three-wave, two-source design. Hierarchical regression analyses and Hayes' PROCESS macro were applied to test the hypotheses.

The results indicated that leader humility positively affected employee proactive behavior through the mediating mechanisms of psychological need satisfaction (i.e. autonomy, competence and relatedness). Furthermore, these positive effects were stronger among employees with lower Chinese traditionality beliefs.

Although prior research has examined the relationship between leadership and proactive behavior, most extant studies have focused on “top-down” leadership approaches, ignoring the effect of leader humility. Drawing on self-determination theory, the present study makes contributions to both the leader humility research and proactivity literature by identifying psychological need satisfaction as the mechanism and Chinese traditionality as the moderator.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of micro-nano surface texture on the corrosion resistance of a titanium alloy and investigate the correlation between corrosion resistance and hydrophobicity.

The surface of the Ti₆Al₄V alloy was modified by laser processing and anodizing to fabricate micro-pits, nanotubes and micro-nano surface textures. Afterward, the surface morphology, hydrophobicity and polarization curve of the samples were analyzed by cold field scanning electron microscopy, contact angle measurement instruments and a multi-channel electrochemical workstation.

The micro-nano surface texture can enhance the hydrophobicity of the Ti₆Al₄V surface, which may lead to better drag reduction to ease the friction of implants in vivo. Nevertheless, no correlation existed between surface hydrophobicity and corrosion resistance; the corrosion resistance of samples with nanotubes and high-density samples with micro-nano surface texture was extremely enhanced, indicating the similar corrosion resistance of the two.

The mechanism of micro-dimples on the corrosion resistance of the micro-nano surface texture was not studied.

The density of micro-pits needs to be optimized to guarantee excellent corrosion resistance in the design of the micro-nano surface texture; otherwise, it will not fulfill the requirement of surface modification.

The influence of the micro-nano surface texture on the corrosion resistance, as well as the relationship between hydrophobicity and corrosion resistance of the titanium alloy surface, were systematically investigated for the first time. These conclusions offer new knowledge.

With the development of the Chinese economy and its gradually opened market, there are more and more chances for foreign business entities who want to expand their businesses in China. The insurance market is one the most attractive. However, getting the authorization for their insurance business is one problem they encounter. The purpose of this paper is to provide some different views about Chinese insurance license regulations for those who want to start their business in China.

Different from the office papers or Regulations of China, this paper is based on research interviews carried out in China (mainly in Beijing and Shanghai). The empirical methodology reveals the actual ideas and attitudes about Chinese insurance license regulations. Except that, the comparative about some issues have been carried on between Chinese insurance companies and foreign insurance companies.

The research interview reveals that it is not difficult for foreign insurers to meet the requirements of clauses of regulations. However, the attitude of Chinese insurance regulators and the culture background, and even the political opinions of the official leaders, have played a very important role in the decision of the regulatory body.

Owing to the limitation of funds and time for this interview research, the interviews were carried out mainly in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzheng. Even most of head offices of insurance companies located in these cities, however, it cannot be said these views represented the 100 percent true opinions.

These findings cannot be said in public, while everyone can understand it. That is the value of this paper.

Telecommunication companies must effectively master information to remain competitive in an increasingly global market. Tremendous business opportunities have been created because of the recent rapid global communications’ liberalization. Following this trend, the telecommunication industry in Taiwan will be a star industry and grow quickly in the future. This study uses questionnaires to examine how quality management practices are implemented in Taiwan’s telecommunication industry. Most of the 39 telecommunication companies surveyed herein are medium‐sized with fairly weak quality performance. Advanced quality management training programs (such as experimental design) are seldom implemented and the companies do not rely on a few reasonably reliable suppliers.

One of the major negative effects of the Coronavirus outbreak worldwide has been reduced investment in green energy projects and energy efficiency. The main purpose of this paper is to study the role of green bond proposed by the World Bank in 2008, as a reliable instrument to enhance the capital flow in energy efficiency financing and to develop green energy resources during and post the current challenging global time.

We model energy efficiency for 37 members of OECD through a panel data framework and quarterly data over 2007Q1–2020Q4.

The major results reveal the positive impacts of issued green bonds and regulatory quality index on energy efficiency, while any increase in inflation rate and urbanization decelerates the progress of raising energy efficiency.

As highlighted concluding remarks and policy implications, it can be expressed that the tool of green bond is a potential policy to drive-up energy efficiency financing and enhancing environmental quality during and post-COVID period. It is recommended to follow green bond policy with an efficient regulation framework and urbanization saving energy planning.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, although a few scholars have investigated the impacts of COVID-19 on green financing or examined the energy efficiency financing, the matter of modeling energy efficiency–green bond relationship has not been addressed by any academic study. The contributions of this paper to the existing literature are: (1) it is the first academic study to discover the relationship between energy efficiency and green bond in OECD countries, (2) since our empirical part provides estimation results based on quarterly data covering the year of 2019 and 2020, it may offer some new policy implications to enhance energy efficiency financing in and post-COVID period, (3) furthermore, we consider energy efficiency indicator (mix of industrial, residential, services and transport energy efficiency) as the dependent variable instead of using the simple energy intensity variable as a proxy for energy efficiency.