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21 – 30 of 85
Article
Publication date: 4 September 2024

Gongbing Bi, Yue Wu and Hang Xu

This paper aims to investigate the impact of quality loss in transit on e-commerce supply chain pricing, production and financing decisions.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the impact of quality loss in transit on e-commerce supply chain pricing, production and financing decisions.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors consider a Stackelberg game model with a supplier, logistics firm and e-commerce platform. The logistics firm is capital-constrained and obtains funding from the e-commerce platform by debt financing or equity financing. Through backward induction, this paper first solves the equilibrium results under the two financing schemes and then reveals the financing preferences of all parties.

Findings

The results demonstrate that equity financing reduces financing costs and promotes production significantly. However, it may also lead to overproduction, particularly in markets with poor profitability and high cost factors. When the percentage of product quality loss is large, equity financing is preferable. With the increasing of transportation level, the benefits of debt finance are steadily growing. In addition, equity financing is the Pareto dominant scheme for all firms under certain circumstances. The extensions consider hybrid financing and another quality loss type.

Practical implications

The paper derives the equilibrium solutions and financing preferences, then specifies the threshold for applying financing schemes. Provide guidance for logistics firmsā€™ finance model innovation and core enterprise involvement in the logistics industry.

Originality/value

The paper investigates how logistics firmsā€™ financing strategies are impacted by product quality loss.

Details

Journal of Modelling in Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5664

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 April 2021

Habtamu Alem

The study measures the technology gap and performance of the Norwegian dairy farms accounting for farm heterogeneity.

Abstract

Purpose

The study measures the technology gap and performance of the Norwegian dairy farms accounting for farm heterogeneity.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis was based on a meta-frontier and unbalanced farm-level panel data for 1991ā€“2014 from 417 Norwegian farms specialized in dairy production in five regions of Norway.

Findings

The result of the analysis provides empirical evidence of regional differences in technical efficiencies, technological gap ratios (TGRs) and input use. Consequently, the paper provides some insights into policies to increase the efficiency of dairy production in the country across all regions.

Research limitations/implications

The author used a meta-frontier approach for modeling regional differences based on a single-output production function specification. This approach has commonly been used in the economics literature since Battese et al. (2004). To get more informative and useful results, it would be necessary to repeat the analysis within terms of multiple input-output frameworks using, for instance, the input distance function approach. Moreover, the author estimated the meta-frontier using the non-parametric approach, thus it is also a need for further analysis if the values are different by estimating using a parametric approach.

Practical implications

One implication for farmers (and their advisers) is that dairy farms in all regions used available technology in the area sub-optimally. Thus, those lagging the best-performing farms need to look at the way the best-performing farmers are operating. Policymakers might reduce the gap is through training, including sharing information about relevant technologies from one area to another, provided that the technologies being shared fit the working environment of the lagging area. Moreover, some of the dairy technologies they use may not fit other regions, suggesting that agricultural policies that aim to encourage efficient dairy production, such as innovation of improved technology (like breeding, bull selection and improved feed varieties) through research and development, need to account the environmental differences between regions.

Social implications

For both taxpayers and consumers, one implication is that the contributions they pay that go to subsidize dairy farmers appear to bring some benefits in terms of more efficient milk production that, in turn, increases the supply of some foods so possibly making food prices more affordable.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the literature in several ways. In contrast to Battese et al. (2004), the author accounts for farm-level performance differences by applying the model devised by Greene (2005), thus may serve as a model for future studies at more local levels or of other industries. Moreover, the author is fortunate to able to use a large level farm-level panel data from 1991 to 2014.

Details

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, vol. 71 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-0401

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 31 July 2023

Lala Hu, Marta Galli and Roberta Sebastiani

The Chinese market represents an increasingly popular destination for wine firms and recent opportunities derive from the growth of e-commerce. The aim of this paper is to…

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Abstract

Purpose

The Chinese market represents an increasingly popular destination for wine firms and recent opportunities derive from the growth of e-commerce. The aim of this paper is to understand the impact of digital platforms on wine firms' internationalisation in China by adopting the service ecosystems approach.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors carried out a case study of Italian premium wine firms from the Valpolicella area by collecting 27 semi-structured interviews with key informants that operate at the micro-, meso- and macro-levels of the internationalisation ecosystem. Italian wine firms were selected as the focus of the analysis, given the recent sales growth of their products in the Chinese market.

Findings

Results show that digital platforms hold a key role in the wine firms' internationalisation in China, intervening with resource integration mechanisms, alignment to the cultural context and mediating firms' digital presence in the market. The platformisation dynamics also reveal the existence of enablers and constraints in the firm internationalisation through digital platforms.

Research limitations/implications

The authors aim to contribute to the marketing literature by analysing how digital platforms influence the wine firms' internationalisation in China through an original perspective, i.e. the service ecosystems lens.

Originality/value

The study adopts the service ecosystems approach to understand the internationalisation of wine firms in the Chinese market through digital platforms.

Details

International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-0552

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 August 2023

Hui Lei, Shiyi Tang and Ao Zan

This study aims to empirically study the effect of process constraints and the combinative effects of different constraints on enterprise digital transformation.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to empirically study the effect of process constraints and the combinative effects of different constraints on enterprise digital transformation.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper selects the World Bank's business environment survey of Chinese enterprises in 2012 as the research sample to empirically study the effect of process constraints and different kinds of constraints on enterprise digital transformation.

Findings

The authors find that process constraints have an inverted U-shaped effect on enterprise digital transformation and that employee digital literacy plays an intermediary role in this process. That is, process constraints have a too-much-of-a-good-thing effect on employees' digital literacy, which further affects enterprise digital transformation. The increase in the number of input and output constraints will make the inverted U-shaped relationship between the process constraint and digital transformation steeper.

Originality/value

The constraints faced by enterprises are everywhere and of many kinds. This paper not only discusses the influence of process constraints on enterprise digital transformation but also analyzes the interactive influence of different kinds of constraints on enterprise digital transformation and explores its micromechanism. This approach is helpful for enterprise managers in thinking about how to make full use of different kinds of constraints to activate the power of enterprise digital transformation, regard constraints as challenges and opportunities, and use them to stimulate the ability to improve the resource integration and utilization.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 29 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 2006

Francis Piron

Following the upheavals of the revolutionary era, the People's Republic of China's consumer culture is somewhat over 20 years old. This research aims at discovering and thus…

5398

Abstract

Purpose

Following the upheavals of the revolutionary era, the People's Republic of China's consumer culture is somewhat over 20 years old. This research aims at discovering and thus better understanding what Chinese consumers value most among their possessions. In turn, this finding should help better understand the contemporary Chinese culture.

Design/methodology/approach

The general research approach utilized in this effort is qualitative. All data were collected through atā€home, inā€depth personal interviews, following established guidelines outlined by Lincoln and Guba, and Wallendorf and Belk. A snowball sampling resulted in the participation of 20 rural and 20 urban households.

Findings

Participants' demographic profile ended up matching well the national profile in terms of income, and the gender and age makeā€up of the rural and urban samples were not significantly different. Four categories emerged to comprehensively represent all the favorite products identified by the participants: entertainment, functional, hedonic, and mementos. In addition, a numerically significant number of participants could neither think of a favorite product nor possess one. As developed in the paper, conventional typologies, such as Hofstede and Triandis' collectivismā€individualism do not account well for the results observed in this study. Rather, the study turns towards Lu's research and suggestion that using instruments developed by Western cultures suffer from methodological defects when applied to Chinese behaviors. This research then defines the Yi, a Confucian value related to benevolence, morality, righteousness, and the Li, a Mohist/Legalist value related to utilitarianism and profit, and suggests that the two better help understand the findings and support observations.

Research limitations/implications

The nature of qualitative research clearly limits the generalization of its findings, and therefore to offer more definitive results, future efforts would have to consider other methods. Also, and while great care is taken to ensure the validity of the data collection process, there is always the possibility that some respondents may not have been as candid or truthful as would be hoped. However, and altogether, findings from this research do match well what public media have often been reporting, and what frequent casual observations point out.

Practical implications

China's contemporary culture is rapidly changing, somehow breaking away from traditions, yet retaining core values and reshaping them with modern, sometimes alien inputs. This research clearly indicates what motivates the younger generations, raised in a nation governed by an allā€controlling Communist party that orchestrates an openly capitalistic, materialistic societal development. Such apparent contradictions, the result of ā€œSocialism with Chinese Characteristics,ā€ may be puzzling to some in the Western world but are not so with today's Chinese consumers.

Originality/value

This research is unique in its topic and research approach, given that it deals with Chinese consumers, the largest block of consumers in the world. It offers a perspective, not yet considered within the marketing and consumer research literature, that seems to explain well what is observed.

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 23 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0736-3761

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 October 2023

Ying Zhao, Hongdi Xu, Guangyan Liu, Yanting Zhou and Yan Wang

Digital transformation and innovation-driven development have become an international consensus. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of relationships, mechanisms…

Abstract

Purpose

Digital transformation and innovation-driven development have become an international consensus. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of relationships, mechanisms and economic consequences between digital transformation and enterprise innovation quality in order to provide a benchmark for developing countries to implement digital transformation strategies and innovation-driven strategies and provide a major support for economic recovery in the post-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) era.

Design/methodology/approach

Using microdata from A-share listed enterprises in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2010 to 2021, this study examines the relationship between digital transformation and enterprise innovation quality and further reveals the internal logic and economic consequences of digital transformation to improve enterprise innovation quality through the mediating effect and moderating effect models.

Findings

The results demonstrate that digital transformation is beneficial for improving enterprise innovation quality. The heterogeneity test demonstrates that digital transformation has a larger effect on improving enterprise innovation quality in non-state-owned enterprises and eastern enterprises in China. The mechanism test demonstrates that digital transformation can improve enterprise innovation quality by improving internal control quality and analyst attention. Furthermore, with the increase in enterprise innovation inputs, digital transformation plays a significantly stronger role in improving enterprise innovation quality. The extended analysis demonstrates that digital transformation can significantly improve enterprise financial performance by improving innovation quality.

Research limitations/implications

First, the construction of the core explanatory variable digital transformation index in this study is based on the Python data analysis software, which calculates the frequency of digital transformation in the text of the business situation analysis portion of the annual report of the listed companies and then obtains the degree of digital transformation of the company in this year. There may be some deviation from the degree of digital transformation in the actual production and operation of enterprises. Second, in addition to internal control quality and analyst attention, are there other mediating mechanisms for the impact of digital transformation on the quality of enterprise innovation? Third, whether the moderating effect of innovation input on digital transformation and innovation quality is related to human capital factors of the research and development (R&D) team, such as the technical background of R&D personnel, etc.

Originality/value

This study enriches the relevant theories of digital transformation and broadens the research boundaries of digital transformation and enterprise innovation. This study's result provides an empirical basis for enterprises to improve enterprise innovation quality and financial performance from the perspective of digital transformation at the micro level and points out specific practical directions, combining theory with practice.

Details

European Journal of Innovation Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1460-1060

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 October 2020

Haihua Chen, Yunhan Yang, Wei Lu and Jiangping Chen

Citation contexts have been found useful in many scenarios. However, existing context-based recommendations ignored the importance of diversity in reducing the redundant issues…

Abstract

Purpose

Citation contexts have been found useful in many scenarios. However, existing context-based recommendations ignored the importance of diversity in reducing the redundant issues and thus cannot cover the broad range of user interests. To address this gap, the paper aims to propose a novelty task that can recommend a set of diverse citation contexts extracted from a list of citing articles. This will assist users in understanding how other scholars have cited an article and deciding which articles they should cite in their own writing.

Design/methodology/approach

This research combines three semantic distance algorithms and three diversification re-ranking algorithms for the diversifying recommendation based on the CiteSeerX data set and then evaluates the generated citation context lists by applying a user case study on 30 articles.

Findings

Results show that a diversification strategy that combined ā€œword2vecā€ and ā€œInteger Linear Programmingā€ leads to better reading experience for participants than other diversification strategies, such as CiteSeerX using a list sorted by citation counts.

Practical implications

This diversifying recommendation task is valuable for developing better systems in information retrieval, automatic academic recommendations and summarization.

Originality/value

The originality of the research lies in the proposal of a novelty task that can recommend a diversification context list describing how other scholars cited an article, thereby making citing decisions easier. A novel mixed approach is explored to generate the most efficient diversifying strategy. Besides, rather than traditional information retrieval evaluation, a user evaluation framework is introduced to reflect user information needs more objectively.

Article
Publication date: 17 February 2023

Muhammad Saleem Sumbal, Aleksandr Ključnikov, Susanne Durst, Alberto Ferraris and Labeeqa Saeed

Retaining critical knowledge is relevant for all organizations, knowledge-intensive ones in particular. Failure to do so can, in the worst case, lead to an organization being…

Abstract

Purpose

Retaining critical knowledge is relevant for all organizations, knowledge-intensive ones in particular. Failure to do so can, in the worst case, lead to an organization being unable to act. Acknowledging the role of context in this regard, the purpose of this paper is to examine knowledge retention (KR) in the banking sector of a developing country. A particular focus is placed on exploring various contextual factors that influence the retention of critical knowledge taking into consideration the setting.

Design/methodology/approach

Following a qualitative research design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior managers from private and public banks in Pakistan. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data.

Findings

The findings suggest that the existence of a collectivist society, gender differences, few job opportunities, power distance and the late IT Boom are vital factors to be considered regarding KR in the setting studied. The findings are summarized in a conceptual framework that highlights critical factors of KR to be studied in a broader context and which are viewed as relevant for informing future research in this underdeveloped area of knowledge management (KM).

Research limitations/implications

The data were collected from a small number of individuals working in different banks in only one country. Future studies should consider research designs across multiple organizations involving more people representing different roles, functions and age groups.

Originality/value

Existing KM research has emphasized the role of context while research on KR is underdeveloped in this regard. By exploring different contextual factors this study advances current understanding in the KM domain.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 27 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 June 2024

Qian Li, Qi Zhang, Yuyan Shen and Xiang Zhang

The elevator installation in old communities (EIOC) can effectively improve the public infrastructure of urban communities. However, differences in the decision-making behaviours…

Abstract

Purpose

The elevator installation in old communities (EIOC) can effectively improve the public infrastructure of urban communities. However, differences in the decision-making behaviours of stakeholders lead to frequent conflicts, thereby hindering the implementation of EIOC. The purpose of this study is to explore the decision-making behavior of core stakeholders which are the government, community owners and elevator enterprises at different stages in the EIOC using the evolutionary game method.

Design/methodology/approach

A tripartite evolutionary game model involving the government, community owners and elevator enterprises was developed, and their evolutionary stabilisation strategies were explored in different stages. The dynamic change of the stakeholders' decision-making behaviours at different stages of the project and the influencing mechanism of the key factors on the decision-making behaviours of the three stakeholders were analysed through numerical simulation.

Findings

The results of this study showed that: Divergent interests led the government, community owners and elevator enterprises to adopt distinct decision-making behaviours at different stages, resulting in diverse attitudes and actions among stakeholders. A dynamic reward and penalty mechanism effectively motivated community owners and elevator enterprises to engage actively, fostering broad participation. However, the high regulatory cost diminished the government's regulatory effectiveness. This imbalance between penalties and incentives posed a challenge, impacting the overall effectiveness and efficiency of implementing the EIOC.

Originality/value

Existing research lacks exploration of the decision-making behaviours of stakeholders in community public infrastructure. This study developed a dynamic tripartite evolutionary game model in the EIOC from the gaming perspective. The results of this study provide a reference for dealing with the stakeholders' interests in the community public infrastructure and contribute to the theoretical basis for establishing an effective supervision mechanism.

Details

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology , vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1726-0531

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 August 2024

Zihao Jiang, Jiarong Shi and Zhiying Liu

Firms in emerging economies are generally at a disadvantage in terms of resources, which may limit their digital transformation. The Chinese government has designed and…

Abstract

Purpose

Firms in emerging economies are generally at a disadvantage in terms of resources, which may limit their digital transformation. The Chinese government has designed and promulgated a series of wind power policies from the perspectives of support and regulation. The former provides scarce resources for enterprises and thus alleviating financial constraints. While the latter increases the demands for advanced technologies, thereby triggering resource bricolages. This study aims to clarify the impact of industrial policy on the digital transformation of the Chinese wind power industry, and the role of financing constraint and resource bricolage in the above relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the data of listed companies in the Chinese wind power industry from 2006 to 2021, this study clarifies the impact and mechanism of industrial policy on firm digital transformation with fixed effect regression models.

Findings

Empirical results indicate that both supportive and regulatory policies are the cornerstone of the digital transformation of the Chinese wind power industry. Financial constraint and resource bricolage, respectively, mediate the impact of supportive and regulatory policies. However, the mix of supportive and regulatory policies inhibits digital transformation. Moreover, industrial policies are more effective for the digital transformation of state-owned enterprises, as well as enterprises in economically underdeveloped regions.

Research limitations/implications

This study investigates the path of government intervention driving firm digital transformation from the resource-related perspective (i.e. financial constraint and resource bricolage), and its analytical framework can be extended based on other theories. The combined effects of cross-sectoral policies (e.g. wind power policy and digital infrastructure policy) can be further assessed. TheĀ marginal net benefit of government intervention can be calculated to determine whether it is worthwhile.

Practical implications

This study emphasizes the necessity of government intervention in the digital transformation of enterprises in emerging economies. The governments should align the policy targets, clarify policy recipients and modify policy process of different categories of industrial policies to optimize the effectiveness of policy mix. Given that the effectiveness of government intervention varies among different categories of enterprises, the competent agencies should design and promulgate differentiated industrial policies based on the heterogeneity of firms to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of industrial policies.

Originality/value

This is one of the earliest explorations of industrial policiesā€™ effect on the digital transformation of the renewable energy sector in emerging economies, providing new evidence for institutional theory. Meanwhile, this study introduces financial constraint and resource bricolage into the research framework and attempts to uncover the mechanism of industrial policy driving the digital transformation of enterprises in emerging economies. Besides, to expand the understanding of the complex industrial policy system, this study assesses the effectiveness of the industrial policy mix.

Details

International Journal of Emerging Markets, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-8809

Keywords

21 – 30 of 85