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The study aims to develop and test a supply chain wide green product development framework of focal firms and their major suppliers, in the context of the Chinese automotive industry.

An in-depth case studies approach is adopted for this study. Three automotive sector upstream supply chains involving 17 firms and 51 experts as respondents were interviewed on the importance and implementation effectiveness of 6Rs (reduce, redesign, recover, remanufacture, reuse and recycle) across the manufacturer and their respective tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers.

The results indicate that the Chinese automotive sector supply chains are mainly focused on “reduce” practices with immediate environmental and economic benefits. The investigated firms however had future implementation plans for “redesign” and “recovery” practices to become comprehensive in green product development (GPD).

The study facilitates automotive firms, industry policymakers and researchers the understanding of incorporating comprehensive GSCM practices across the upstream supply chain to achieve circularity. The study focused on upstream supply chain due to the concentration of major production practices in this section of the supply chain. However, the downstream supply chain equally deserve attention as well as the need to understand the mediating and moderating roles of the different Rs to tease out the pros and cons of achieving overall environmental sustainability.

There are very limited studies on comprehensive GPD for achieving optimal GSCM and sustainability. By simultaneous looking at a focal firm and its upstream supply chains GSCM practices, this study addresses a system-wide comprehensive GPD issues from implementation of 6Rs perspectives in the supply chain.

This study aims to analyze the determinants influencing Chinese manufacturing companies in implementing lean manufacturing (LM).

The determinants to be explored in this study consist of technological, organizational and environmental (TOE) dimensions. A questionnaire survey was conducted on Chinese manufacturing companies, and 208 samples were analyzed.

The findings show that the relative advantage of LM and organizational support have significantly positive effects on Chinese manufacturing firms’ adoption of LM. The complexity of LM, quality of human resources, organizational readiness, customer pressure, international situation, governmental support and environmental uncertainty do not have significant effects.

This paper contributes to the literature by using the TOE model to explore the factors influencing LM adoption in the Chinese manufacturing industry.

This study aims to investigate the motivations for the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies among manufacturing firms in developing economies. Specifically, the effects of relative advantage of the technologies, competitive pressure, and government support on the adoption are explored. Moreover, the mediating role of top management support between environmental factors (government support and competitive pressure) and the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies is examined.

A research model is developed based on the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework strengthened by institutional theory. Structural equation modeling (SEM) approach is employed to evaluate the model using data obtained from 215 manufacturing firms through a cross-industry survey. Additionally, a post-hoc analysis is conducted using cluster analysis and ANOVA.

The results show that competitive pressure and government support significantly promote top management support, which in turn contributes to the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies. Relative advantage of the technologies is not significantly related to the adoption.

This study does not explore the relationship between technology type and the specific needs of manufacturing firms. Future researchers can conduct a more comprehensive analysis by examining how different technology types align with the unique needs of individual companies.

The findings of this study have implications for both policymakers and managers. Policymakers can leverage these insights to understand the underlying motivations behind manufacturing firms' adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies and develop promoting policies. In turn, managers should keep an eye on government policies and utilize government support to facilitate technology adoption.

This study uncovers the underlying motivations—government support and competitive pressure—for the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies among manufacturing firms in developing economies. Meanwhile, it complements previous research by showing the mediating role of top management support between environmental factors (government support and competitive pressure) and the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies.

Managing inventory continues to be a growing area of concern for many retailers due to the multitude of issues that arise from either an excess or shortage of inventory. This study aims to understand how a large-scale retail chain can improve its handling of excess seasonal inventory using three common strategies: information sharing, visibility, and collaboration.

This study has been designed utilizing a case study method focusing on one retail chain at three key levels: strategic (head office), warehouses, and retail stores. The data have been collected by conducting semi-structured interviews with senior-level employees at each of the three levels and employing a thematic analysis to examine the major themes.

The results show how three common strategies are being practiced by this retailer and how utilizing these strategies aids the retailer in improving its performance in regard to seasonal inventory. Among our research findings, some challenges were discovered in implementing the strategies, most notably: human errors, advanced forecasting deficiencies, and the handling of return merchandise authorizations.

This research takes a case study approach and focuses on one big-box retailer. The authors chose to study three levels (head office, warehouses, and retail stores) to gain a deeper understanding of the functions and processes of each level, and to understand the working relationships between them. Through the collection of primary data in a Canadian context, this study contributes to the literature by investigating supply chain strategies for managing inventory. The Canadian context is especially interesting due to the multi-cultural demographics of the country.

With the rapid development of the sharing economy in manufacturing industries, manufacturers and the equipment suppliers frequently share capacity through the third-party platform. This paper aims to study influences of manufacturers sharing capacity on the supplier and to analyze whether the supplier shares capacity as well as its influences.

This paper deals with conditions that the supplier and manufacturers share capacity through the third-party platform, and the third-party platform competes with the supplier in equipment sales. Considering the heterogeneity of the manufacturer's earning of unit capacity usage and the production efficiency of manufacturer's usage strategies, this paper constructs capacity sharing game models. Then, model equilibrium results under different sharing scenarios are compared.

The results show that when the production or maintenance cost is high, manufacturers sharing capacity simultaneously benefits the supplier, the third-party platform and manufacturers with high earnings of unit capacity usage. When both the rental efficiency and the production cost are low, or both the rental efficiency and the production cost are high, the supplier simultaneously sells equipment and shares capacity. The supplier only sells equipment in other cases. When both the rental efficiency and the production cost are low, the supplier’s sharing capacity realizes the win-win-win situation for the supplier, the third-party platform and manufacturers with moderate earnings of unit capacity usage.

This paper innovatively examines supplier's selling and sharing decisions considering manufacturers sharing capacity. It extends the research on capacity sharing and is important to supplier's operational decisions.

This paper aims to contribute to international business research by providing an integrative framework of the factors determining the learning process of outsourcing companies in developing countries.

A systematic review of the literature was performed with an analysis of 84 articles published in peer-reviewed academic journals, published between 2000 and 2020.

The results show that the different factors should be seen as complementary and not mutually exclusive. It is the interaction between macro and micro factors that jointly shape the learning of developing country subcontractors. Moreover, the results of the analysis show that many existing studies have not been based on specific theoretical frameworks.

This study develops a roadmap of the current state of research on the determinants of learning among developing country subcontractors and offers suggestions to guide future research. The authors conclude with a call for methodological advancement and theory development on the topic.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study proposes the first comprehensive review of the literature on the factors determining the learning of subcontractors in developing countries. The authors have tried to provide an integrative analytical framework to discuss what has been known and what needs to be known in this regard.

The study aims to examine the effects of guanxi and harmonious leadership on acquisition performance and the role of sociocultural integration as a mediating mechanism impacting the above links, with a focus on Chinese cross-border acquisitions in The Netherlands.

Data were collected through survey questionnaire with 91 respondents who work in Dutch-acquired companies. Regression analysis was used for exploring the relationship.

The study finds that both guanxi and harmonious leadership are positive to acquisition performance, and sociocultural integration represents a significant mediating mechanism by which guanxi and harmonious leadership can result in improved acquisition performance.

This study contributes to culture research by emphasizing the clarification of specific Chinese cultural values and cultural practices in cross-border acquisitions and examining the role of guanxi and harmonious leadership in acquisition performance. Meanwhile, this study helps to unveil Chinese cross-border acquisitions in The Netherlands by examining the mediating force – sociocultural integration.

From the perspective of social networks and knowledge networks, this study aims to empirically examine an updated four-dimension networking capability (NC) construct and test the relationships between it and innovation strategies through knowledge application activities in the context of Chinese manufacturing firms.

Data analysis is conducted on a quantitative survey of 219 manufacturing firms in China with a mixed method of partial least squares structural equation modeling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis.

The results indicate that knowledge assimilation application (KAA) and knowledge transformation application (KTA) fully mediate the relationships between NC and ambidextrous innovation strategies. KAA has a stronger association with exploitative innovation (EL) than with exploratory innovation (ER), and KTA has a stronger association with ER than with EL.

The authors develop the conceptualization of NC and examine its role in knowledge application activities within a firm. Further, the authors adopt an alternative perspective to highlight the importance of KAA and KTA in mediating the relationships between NC and exploratory and exploitative innovation strategies.

The findings indicate that firms should build NC based on their knowledge requirements and knowledge network structure. Additionally, managers should possess in-depth insights regarding an effective knowledge application toward different types of external knowledge from partners. More specific, firms are more likely to conduct KAA for a high degree of knowledge relatedness, while for a low degree of knowledge relatedness, firms are more likely to conduct KTA.

The authors provide a novel alternative insight into knowledge application activities. From the perspective of knowledge networks, the authors argue that there are two distinct and parallel activities (i.e. KAA and KTA). The authors empirically examined the mediating roles of KAA and KTA in the NC–ambidextrous innovation strategies relationships as well as enriched the literature on their relationships.

This study aims to investigate the structural characteristics, spatial evolution paths and internal driving mechanisms of the knowledge transfer (KT) network in China’s patent-intensive industries (PIIs). The authors' goal is to provide valuable insights to inform policy-making that fosters the development of relevant industries. The authors also aim to offer a fresh perspective for future spatiotemporal studies on industrial KT and innovation networks.

In this study, the authors analyze the patent transfer (PT) data of listed companies in China’s information and communication technology (ICT) industry, spanning from 2010 to 2021. The authors use social network analysis and the quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) method to explore the problem of China’s PIIs KT from the perspectives of technical characteristics evolution, network and spatial evolution and internal driving mechanisms.

The results indicate that the knowledge fields involved in the PT of China’s ICT industry primarily focus on digital information transmission technology. From 2010 to 2021, the scale of the ICT industry’s KT network expanded rapidly. However, the polarization of industrial knowledge distribution is becoming more serious. QAP regression analysis shows that economic proximity and geographical proximity do not affect KT activities. The similarity of knowledge application capacity, innovation capacity and technology demand categories in various regions has a certain degree of impact on KT in the ICT industry.

The current research on PIIs mainly focuses on measuring economic contributions and innovation efficiency, but less on KT in PIIs. This study explores KT in PIIs from the perspectives of technological characteristics, network and spatial evolution. The authors propose a theoretical framework to understand the internal driving mechanisms of industrial KT networks.

Value-added intellectual coefficient (VAIC) is extensively used as a measure of intellectual capital (IC), but it is criticized for not capturing the totality of IC. Therefore, this study aims to analyse critiques of the original VAIC and proposes a modified VAIC by adding missing IC components and adjusting for exogenous factors. The study uses a modified VAIC model to investigate the relationship between IC, firm performance (FP) and market value (MV) for US non-financial firms.

This study employed fundamental data of US non-financial firms listed on the NYSE and NASDAQ from 1980 to 2019. A final sample consisted of 6,019 firms and 62,686 firm-year observations.

The results provide a significant positive effect of aggregate and components of modified VAIC on FP and MV. Moreover, results validate the modified VAIC model and find that the modified VAIC explains changes in shareholders' MV. In addition, findings indicate that modified VAIC serves as an additional intangible factor to explain firms' capital structure decisions.

The findings have important implications for management, owners, researchers and investors.

The modified VAIC model differs from the original VAIC model in four ways: first, it corrects the measurement of structural capital efficiency (SCE) following the accounting principle. Second, it replaces SCE with innovation capital efficiency (InVCE) and relational capital efficiency (RCE) to account for missing components of information of structural capital (SC). Third, the modified VAIC model adjusts for exogenous factors like business cycles and cross-industry variations. Finally, with the addition of InVCE and RCE as components of SCE, innovation capital (InVC) and relational capital (RC) are added to the calculation of value-added (VA) as components of IC.