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In this paper, we argue that work should be recognized as “commons.” We call for a new approach to how managers define their role and responsibility regarding the problem of work flexibility and of its societal implications. We argue that, in the global and digitized economy, it is in the best interest of all the company’s stakeholders that managers choose combinations of work arrangements and human resource policies considering the externalities of these decisions. Managers’ responsibility spans to the costs and risks that the broader social system of organizational stakeholders will bear because of their decisions. When labor market institutions are “thin,” it is management’s responsibility to contribute structuring and shaping them, so that the interests of workers, independent of the work arrangements, are considered.

A defining feature of international business is the necessity for people from diverse cultural backgrounds to interact and collaborate but intercultural interaction is difficult and may give rise to disagreement and conflict. I have been working on the dynamics that promote positive intercultural interaction in the international business context, and two streams of my research, one empirical and the other conceptual, are reviewed here. The first stream is concerned with fairness issues surrounding the pay disparity between locals and expatriates in multinational enterprises operating in China, which has implications for MNC operations in other emerging economies. My research has shown that the pay disparity is associated with negative reactions from local employees but some management practices associated with the relationship between locals and expatriates, attributions made by locals, and salient norms about the pay disparity can buffer such negative reactions. In this research program, the focus is not on the actual interaction between locals and expatriates. To address this gap, a conceptual framework is presented, which provides insight about the factors that contribute to positive interaction between locals and expatriates. This paper ends with implications for future research on intercultural interaction in the MNC context.

The increasing prevalence and availability of big data represent a potentially revolutionary development for human resource management (HRM) scholars. Despite this, the current literature provides eclectic and often contradictory guidance for scholars attempting to conceptualize big data and subsequently incorporate it into relevant theoretical frameworks. The authors attempt to bridge this gap by discussing key considerations relevant to understanding and integrating big data into the existing theoretical landscape. Building on a novel, integrative definition of big data, the authors propose a parsimonious theoretical framework utilizing the established dimensions of complexity and dynamism as meta-attributes to bring order to the various attributes that have been proposed as central to defining big data (e.g., volume, variety, velocity, and variability). Throughout, the authors highlight numerous theoretical and empirical opportunities and considerations that this perspective holds for future HRM scholarship.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the mechanisms through which absorptive capacity (AC), trust and information systems jointly influence product innovation.

This study proposes a research model to examine the mediating role of AC on the impacts of trust and information systems on product innovation and the moderating roles of trust and information systems on the relationship between AC and product innovation. The hypotheses are empirically tested using regression and bootstrapping methods and data collected from 276 manufacturing firms in China.

This study finds that trust and information systems positively affect product innovation and the effects are fully mediated by AC. AC also significantly enhances product innovation, and the effect is amplified by trust as well as information systems. In addition, the results show that trust and information systems improve AC both individually and interactively.

The findings extend existing knowledge on the antecedents of AC and the contingent conditions under which a manufacturer’s AC is more effective than that of its rivals. The results also clarify the mechanisms through which trust and information systems improve product innovation. This study provides insights into the complex relationships among a manufacturer’s sociotechnical systems, knowledge management processes and new product development, and reveals how to design organisational systems to fully capitalise the value of AC on product innovation.

This paper aims to develop a strategy for high‐precision assembly in a semi‐structured environment based on vision and force control.

The position and orientation of a part are identified using the vision system. The force/torque control algorithm is then applied to perform a tight‐tolerance assembly that is a high‐precision assembly.

The tight tolerance assembly in a semi‐structured environment is successfully implemented using vision guidance and force/torque‐control strategy.

The developed methodology can be applied to tight tolerance assembly, such as forward‐clutch assembly, torque‐converter assembly, etc.

An industrial assembly methodology has been developed and implemented for high‐precision assembly in a semi‐structured environment. This innovation has many potential applications in automotive manufacturing.

By integrating proactive perspective and person-environment fit (P-E fit) perspective, this study intends to examine a moderated mediation model of proactive personality to investigate its effects on employee creativity. The current study proposes felt responsibility for change mediates the relationship between proactive personality and employee creativity. The purpose of this paper is to identify core self-evaluation (CSE) and developmental feedback received as personal and situational moderators on the relationship between proactive personality and felt responsibility for change.

A matched sample from 232 employees and their supervisors of software companies in China was used to test the hypotheses. Hierarchical regression analyses and moderated mediation approach were conducted to examine the proposed model.

The results indicate that felt responsibility for change mediates the positive relationship between proactive personality and employee creativity. CSE and developmental feedback received positively moderate the relationship between proactive personality and felt responsibility for change. In addition, CSE and developmental feedback received are two moderators in the path from proactive personality to employee creativity via felt responsibility for change such as the indirect relationship between proactive personality and employee creativity through felt responsibility for change is more pronounced when CSE and developmental feedback received are higher rather than lower, respectively.

The paper contributes to creativity literature by identifying felt responsibility for change as the mediator on the relationship between proactive personality and employee creativity. The current study also contributes to proactive perspective and P-E fit theory by investigating the moderating roles of CSE and developmental feedback received on the relationship between proactive personality and felt responsibility for change. Although data were collected from multiple sources to avoid common method variance, the cross-sectional design cannot unequivocally examine the direction of causality in this study.

By examining both mediating and moderating effects, the paper contributes to uncovering the black box in which employees with proactive personality exhibit felt responsibility for change and creativity.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an intelligent robot assembly system for the moving production line. Moving production lines are widely used in many manufacturing factories, including automotive and general industries. Industrial robots are hardly used to perform any tasks on the moving production lines. One of the main reasons is that it is difficult for conventional industrial robots to adjust to any sort of change. Therefore, more intelligent industrial robotic systems have to be developed to adopt the random motion of the moving production lines. This paper presents an intelligent robotics system that performs an assembly process while the object is moving, using synergic combination of visual servoing and force control technology.

The developed intelligent robotic system includes some rules to ensure the success of the assembly processes. Also visual servoing and force control are used to deal with the random motion of the moving objects. Since the objects on the moving production lines are moving with random speed, visual servoing is adopted to tracking the motion of the moving object. Force control is also integrated to control the motion of the robot and keep the robotic system compliant with the moving objects to avoid the damage of the whole system.

The developed intelligent robotic technology has been successfully implemented. The wheel loading process is used as example.

Since the developed technology is based on the low‐level motion control, safety has to be considered. Currently, it is done by motion supervision.

The developed technology can be used to perform assemblies in the moving production lines. Since the developed platform is based on the synergic combination of visual servoing and force control technology, it can be used in other areas, such as seam tracking and seat loading, etc.

This paper provides a practical solution of performing assemblies on the moving production lines, which is not available on the current industrial robot market.

In this chapter, we review relational demography literature underpinned by the similarity–attraction paradigm and status characteristics and social identity theories. We then develop an uncertainty reduction model of relational demography, which describes a two-stage process of uncertainty emergence and reduction in a workgroup setting. The first stage depicts how structural features of the workgroup (workgroup composition) and occupation (the legitimacy of its status hierarchy) induce two forms of uncertainty: uncertainty about group norms and uncertainty about instrumental outcomes. The second part of the model illustrates employees' choice of uncertainty reduction strategies, depending on the type of uncertainty they experience, and the status of their demographic categories. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

This article discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic affects the demand and preferences of tourists in Russia. Tourists are the important part of the tourism industry, the most affected by COVID-19, because they are not only limited in moving and free choice of vacation destinations but also experience the economic consequences of the pandemic. However, the industry has already adapted to the current realities of the pandemic period, and tourists largely accept closed borders, mandatory vaccination requirements and PCR tests as an integral part of a modern tourist trip.

In Russia, the tourism industry has received a significant development boost despite the expected crisis consequences. The efforts of the authorities to stimulate domestic tourism and the lack of alternatives for vacations contributed to the fact that in 2020–2021 the domestic tourist flow increased by several times.

Article is aimed at studying the changes in tourist motivation and preferences of Russian tourists made by ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, will Russians still want to travel across their country after the pandemic is over? And what is currently influencing their choice of vacation forms and destinations? The survey revealed changes in the tourists' choice of vacation destinations, preferences in forms of activity and duration of travel, decrease of interest in package tours and rise of individual trips as well as the stable degree of satisfaction with vacations in Russia.

To answer this question, we examined the results of public opinion survey, carried out by All-Russian Centre for the Public Opinion Study and Association of Russian Tour operators. To confirm these results, we conducted own tourist opinion survey and analysed reviews on popular travel platforms in Russia. Today the tourism industry is in uncertainty and it is impossible to predict its development and tourist motivation in long-term perspective. This makes the study promising for continuation in the long term.