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This paper aims to investigate a firm’s incentive to innovate its basic product to be socially responsible and its decision on the product line. By constructing a competition model, the paper examines the factors that affect the firm’s choice on its product line with the socially responsible innovation in the presence of altruistic consumers. Such factors include the proportion of the altruistic consumers, the firm’s coordination cost with the basic and innovative products, as well as the consumer’s transportation cost.

In a model of differentiated products with the competition, the author assumes that a portion of consumers has a strong preference for the socially responsible product (e.g. altruistic consumers). A firm is able to attract altruistic consumers with a socially responsible innovation but it may incur a coordination cost when both the basic and the innovated products are manufactured and sold. In a framework of a sequential game, the firms make a decision on the prices, innovation inputs, as well as the choice on its product line to achieve the expected profit maximization.

The firm has the incentive to engage in socially responsible innovation to better compete with its rivals. More importantly, the results of the paper explain why some firms wish to manufacture and sell the basic product even though the innovation is successful. The main factors that affect such a firm’s decision include the proportion of the altruistic consumers, the aggregate benefit to all the consumers who purchase the innovative product, the firm’s potential coordination cost and the consumer’s transportation cost.

The paper sheds light on a firm’s corporate social responsibility innovation and its product line determination. The results of this paper can be widely applied in the firm’s strategy of engaging in corporate social responsibility with eco-friendly elements that can attract altruistic consumers in the market. In addition, the findings of the paper can also contribute to policy formulation in terms of innovation. Such a result enables the policymakers to understand the factors that affect the firm’s motivation on innovation and helps them to better guide the firms efficiently participate in the research and development activities.

Privacy scholars appear to struggle in conceptualizing blockchain from a privacy perspective: is it a privacy-enhancing mechanism like differential privacy, a privacy-intruding tool like third-party cookies or a technology orthogonal to the issue of privacy? Blockchain does not seem to neatly fit into any of these buckets that we traditionally use to gauge the privacy implications of information technologies. In this article, the authors argue that blockchain transcends the extant conceptualization of privacy because it modifies the nature of data flow upon which the modern concept of privacy is based.

The authors introduce a conceptualization of blockchain as a new mechanism for data management. Then, following this conceptualization, the authors present a functional review of blockchain, summarizing the features it provides for the data it manages. This review sets up the discussion of how blockchain redefines data flow by separating the power of collection, access and query of data to different entities. After illustrating how this change regrounds privacy concerns in a blockchain system, the authors conclude with a discussion of the recommendations for future privacy research on blockchain.

The authors demonstrate that blockchain, by design, separates three core data-centric operations that are assumed to be inextricably linked in the canonical conceptualization of privacy: the collection, access and query of data. Collection means to capture and then store the data; access means to modify or augment the data and query means the ability to test or verify certain properties of the data (e.g. whether a bank account has a zero balance). Traditionally, any entities that collect data can evidently read, modify or query the same data as they wish. With blockchain, however, an entity that stores the data may not be able to modify the data, yet an entity that cannot even read the data may be able to verify certain properties of the data.

Privacy scholars appear to struggle in conceptualizing blockchain from a privacy perspective: is it a privacy-enhancing mechanism like differential privacy, a privacy-intruding tool like third-party cookies or a technology orthogonal to the issue of privacy? In this article, the authors aim to respond to this important question.

This paper aims to theoretically investigate an online company’s optimal decision on its offline expansion strategy. In the past five years, many large online retailers and internet-based companies such as Amazon, Google, Alibaba, Tencent and JD.com have expanded their offline market but it was observed that they adopted different expansion strategies. Specifically, some of them expand the offline market by acquiring offline retailers, while some do so by purchasing a portion of offline retailer’s stake. This difference leads to a quite different structure in post-expansion market, having an impact on profit, consumer surplus and social welfare. The goal of this paper is to model such expansion strategies in a general way and complete studies on profits and welfare.

By constructing a Salop model with two offline retailers and one online company, this paper analyzes the case where the online company can expand its offline market by either acquiring or jointing (e.g. stakeholding) with one offline retailer. The former strategy (named Strategy A) allows the online company to fully control and capture residual claims of the offline retailer. With the adoption of the latter strategy (named Strategy C), on the other hand, the online company can obtain a fixed proportion of its offline partner’s quasi rent. In the price competition, the online company chooses its optimal offline expansion strategy by predicting its profit in the post-expansion market.

This paper found that the equilibrium crucially depends on the synergy effect due to online–offline integration, and such synergy also influences both consumer and social welfare. This study shows the various conditions on the synergy that affect an online company moves toward offline markets. Accordingly, this finding can assist online companies with or without retailing business to choose an optimal strategy when expanding offline markets. Moreover, by doing some necessary welfare analysis, this study shows that the online company’s offline expansion is not always benefiting consumers nor be socially desirable, which may shed some lights on the possible competition policy in the case where online companies practice in offline expansion.

Different from conventional wisdom in online-offline integration, the theory indicates that the offline expectation of online company may not always benefit consumers nor be socially desirable. Moreover, the findings also shed some lights on the possible competition policy in the case where online companies practice in offline expansion.

This paper aims to investigate the motivation for firms to innovate their products to be socially responsible in the presence of the spillover effect. The follower of the innovation in corporate social responsibility (CSR) can benefit from the leader’s innovation by technological spillover. For instance, evidence can be found in the cosmetics industry (e.g. Lush Retail Ltd. and The Body Shop) and the market of hybrid electric vehicles (e.g. Toyota and Honda). Moreover, consumers may have different perceptions on the sequence of CSR innovation by firms, they may prefer more on the CSR product launched by the leader because they usually relate the desired stage to their interests when making a purchase decision. Therefore, the firms’ decision to be a leader of the CSR innovation depends on the trade-off between the loss in the spillover effect and the benefit of the first-mover advantage, which has not been considered by the existing literature. This paper explains the firms’ motivation on CSR innovation in a realistic situation where competing firms’ CSR programs are launched sequentially and sheds light on the private sector’s decision on strategy from the perspective on the social contribution, and provides some managerial implications about the competing firms’ strategies of launching the CSR innovation.

The authors construct a two-period Hotelling model in which consumers are divided into two groups: the altruistic and normal consumers. The altruistic consumers have more willingness to pay for the CSR product while the normal consumers only care about the product performance improved by the firms’ CSR activities. Firms have the option to innovate their basic products to be socially responsible and make their decision on such CSR innovation sequentially. Moreover, the follower of the innovation can receive a spillover effect from the leader, meaning that there may exist a second-mover advantage in terms of innovation (the authors define this as a spillover effect), but in the meanwhile, the altruistic consumers value more on the CSR product sold by the leader than that by the follower (the authors define this as a preference-reduction effect). This implies that the firm can benefit in the production process from being a second-mover of the CSR innovation but may lose its first-mover advantage in terms of the preference-reduction effect. By finding and analyzing the sub-game perfect Nash equilibrium, the authors try to figure out the firms’ decisions on CSR innovation in various situations.

The authors find that the firms’ motivation of CSR innovation crucially depends on the fraction of the altruistic consumers, as well as the spillover effect and the preference-reduction effect. A large (small) fraction of the altruistic consumers attracts (restricts) both the leader and the follower to engage in CSR innovation. More importantly, when such fraction is not too large but stays at a relatively high level, a potential leader of the CSR innovation may not wish to innovate. Hence, the potential follower may be the monopolist in the market of the socially responsible product. In addition, the authors reexamine this result in a variation model where a leader can make its decision on the CSR innovation to be more flexible by allowing it can innovate in either periods 1 or 2. The authors demonstrate that when the fraction of the altruistic consumers falls in an intermediate range, the leader may wish to delay the CSR innovation to period 2. In such a case, the leader of the CSR innovation may tend to trade its first-mover advantage for head-to-head competition with the follower and prevents the follower from benefiting from the spillover effect. Moreover, a flexible choice on the CSR innovation brings greater initiative to a firm to be the leader of the innovation.

Nearly all the studies about firms’ decisions on CSR innovation are conducted in an environment of simultaneous move, which is not appropriate to describe the real business world; many pieces of evidence show that many CSR programs are launched sequentially rather than simultaneously. The theory identifies a couple of important factors of the CSR innovation in a more realistic situation, i.e. sequential more on CSR innovation. Both spillover effect and preference-reduction effect crucially affect the firms’ decision on innovating their products to be socially responsible, which contributes to the existing literature in CSR and strategic decision. This paper also sheds some light on managerial implications with CSR innovation under various situations of competition.

This paper aims to investigate the national brand manufacturer's ability from corporate social responsibility (CSR) innovation as a counterstrategy against the private label by a retailer. By constructing a model of manufacturer–retailer interaction, the paper attempts to analyze that the national brand manufacturer’s decision on the CSR innovation and the effect of such innovation on the retailer’s motivation of launching the private label. The results of the theoretical model in this paper could be applied by the actors in supply chains in making decision on CSR innovation and the launch of a new brand.

The theoretical model in the paper describes a manufacturer–retailer interaction with the presence of the private label and CSR innovation on the national brand. Specifically, the manufacturer has option of innovating its products and makes them to be more socially responsible; in the meanwhile, the retailer has option of launching its private label. Moreover, there are heterogeneous consumers with respect to their preferences on the CSR feature. The altruistic consumers prefer the socially responsible product while the normal consumers are indifferent between the socially responsible and basic products. By predicting the expected profit, the two firms make decision over the supply chain.

The authors find that the CSR innovation can indeed restrict the retailer’s incentive to launch the private label. Because of the presence of the altruistic consumers, the CSR innovation can help the national brand product to expand its market relative to the situation without the innovation. They demonstrate that the national brand manufacturer wishes to invest more in CSR innovation under non-linear pricing contract and the retailer is more likely to launch the private label. This is because that the non-linear pricing contract makes the two firms to concern more about their joint profit, causing the competition is less fierce.

This paper explains that the CSR innovation in the national brand product can be an effective counterstrategy by the manufacturer to deter the launch of the private label, which has not been considered by the existing studies about national brand-private label competition. Moreover, this paper also shows that the CSR innovation may benefit both the national brand manufacturer and the retailer under some conditions. In addition, the results of the paper provide some insights to the national brand manufacturer when making decision on the CSR innovation and to the retailer when reacting the manufacturer’s CSR innovation.

Virtual reality (VR) technologies have been gaining popularity in training and development in many fields to promote embodied training. However, its adoption in management has been slow and rigorous empirical research to understand its impact on learning and retention is scarce. Thus, this paper aims to examine the benefits of VR technologies for management training.

Through a longitudinal experiment comparing VR platforms and a traditional video platform, this study examines two as yet unexplored benefits of VR technologies vis-à-vis management training – the cognitive outcome and affective reaction of the training experience over time.

This study finds that, for cognitive outcomes, immediate gains are similar across video and VR platforms, but subsequent knowledge retention is significantly higher for VR platforms. In terms of affective reaction, VR platforms generate significantly more enjoyment, which carries over to two weeks later, and is partially associated with higher knowledge retention.

This study has implications for management and human resource trainers and system designers interested in integrating VR for training and development purposes.

This study makes a unique contribution by unpacking the long-term benefits of an embodied training system, as well as identify a possible link between cognitive outcomes and affective reaction.

The presence of asymmetric information exists between firms and the government about the firms' green innovation; this may lead to the firm's moral hazard problem of misusing the government subsidy on the green innovation. Such a problem is not fully considered by the existing literature. The purpose of this study is to explore how government subsidy affects green innovation when the information of firms' innovation cannot be completed observed, and figure out the mechanisms that can alleviate the negative impact of information asymmetry, which helps to explain the factors that motivate the firms to actively engage into the green innovation with the government subsidy.

In a theoretical model under imperfect information in which the firm's activity on green innovation may not be fully observed, the firm could be either altruistic or not; an altruistic firm has stronger incentive to engage into corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities such as green innovation. With the presence of asymmetric information, the authors analyze the possibility of a firm's moral hazard and try to find out the condition on the information quality that can avoid such problem. To examine the results of theoretical analysis, the authors use the data of Chinese listed companies in a corresponding empirical analysis. On the basis of both theoretical and empirical the authors try to figure out the effect of the government subsidy on the green innovation by enterprise and the role of firm's characteristics of social responsibility and information quality in the green innovation with the government subsidy.

The results show that the government subsidy can promote the firm's green innovation, especially for those that are more socially responsible. The asymmetric information, however, leads to inefficiency on the green innovation. This is because that the low-quality information about the firm's behavior raises the possibility of a moral hazard. Moreover, the analyst coverage could be an efficient way to improve the quality of information, alleviating the moral hazard problem of the firm's green innovation. The main contribution is to fill the gap in the study of the government subsidy on green innovation under asymmetric information and to provide the mechanism to improve the efficiency of the subsidy to motivate green innovation by enterprise.

A crucial implication to policymakers is to complete and improve the system of information in the market, which can form an efficient incentive compatibility between the enterprises and the public. Such incentive compatibility can attract the enterprises to better use the government subsidy into green innovation and receive a long-run return from the public's positive feedback for their contribution on the social good.

Existing studies are concerned about antecedents of green innovation do not completely focus on the relationship between government subsidy and green innovation. The present paper considers that information asymmetry between the government and firms may affect the impact of government subsidy on the firms' green innovation. This conjecture is studied by the theoretical model and verified by an empirical analysis using the data of Chinese listed companies. Additionally, the empirical analysis explores the moderating effect of CSR characteristics of firms, and the analyst coverage can positively affect the promotion of the government subsidy on the firms' green innovation.

A flexible decision technology called the Graph Model for Conflict Resolution (GMCR) is applied to a generic aquaculture conflict to illustrate how GMCR can be used to systematically investigate a wide range of conflicts arising in aquaculture in order to obtain meaningful strategic insights and thereby assist in making informed decisions in aquaculture development. To emphasize the importance of being able to resolve aquaculture controversies, a review of the global economic impacts of the aquaculture industry is provided and the key stakeholders who may be involved in aquaculture disputes along with their legitimate interests are identified. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The GMCR methodology comprises two main stages: modeling and analysis. During the modeling stage, key decision makers (DMs), the options under each DM’s control and each DM’s relative preferences over feasible states are identified based on a thorough background investigation to a given dispute. Within the analysis stage, solution concepts that describe key characteristics of human behavior under conflict are utilized to determine resolutions that could occur when DMs interact under pure competition and cooperatively. Interpretation of the equilibrium results provides meaningful strategic insights for better understanding which strategies a given DM could select as the conflict evolves over time.

The results demonstrate how difficult it can be to balance the interests of different key stakeholders in aquaculture development. In all possible resolutions identified in the generic aquaculture conflict, at least two DMs among First Nations, environmental group and residents (Res) would object to the expansion of aquaculture activities due to the assumption that the government would choose to appease one stakeholder at a time. They also reflect the need for a useful tool box of decision technologies for addressing the vast range of challenges that could arise in the important area of marine economics and management.

The GMCR methodology possesses several unique and key original capabilities in comparison to other conflict analysis models. First, it only requires limited information to calibrate a conflict model. Second, it contains a number of solution concepts that describe how a DM could think and behave under conflict. Third, it furnishes a range of informative output, follow-up analyses and advice for use in real-life decision support. Finally, all of the foregoing advantages of GMCR can be contained within decision support systems that permit practitioners and researchers to readily apply the GMCR methodology to real-life conflicts.

The purpose of this study is to conduct a survey of Mexican millennials to measure the extent of negative bias and perceived advertising value they experienced toward the ads they encountered while performing a search for local products and services from their smartphones.

Using a paper survey with a scenario question, responses were collected from 1,215 millennial smartphone owners about the strategies they used for scanning mobile search organic and sponsored results and quickly reaching the information they needed when performing a mobile search. The 315 participants who reported clicking on ads were further surveyed on their perceptions of ad informativeness, entertainment, irritation and credibility. These constructs were used as the predictors of advertising value in a structural equations model which was estimated with partial least squares.

A substantial bias against sponsored results was found, with two-thirds of respondents skipping the ads when performing a mobile search from their smartphones. However, 28.2 per cent reported clicking on the most relevant result without regard to it being organic or sponsored, and an additional 5.6 per cent reported clicking on an ad as their first strategy. In the structural model, all four hypothesized antecedents of advertising value were significant, and some gender differences were detected.

With the increasing penetration of smartphones, and rapid growth of mobile search, these results are particularly relevant for local merchants, who can use mobile search ads to leverage their location and communicate with searching consumers at the precise moment when they are most receptive to timely and relevant advertising.

This study is the first to measure the extent of consumer bias against sponsored results in a mobile search, and the first empirical estimation of the advertising value of mobile-sponsored results.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamic characteristics of a spiral groove liquid film seal considering the effect of cavitation.

A mathematical model of a spiral groove liquid film seal was established based on the mass-conserving Jakobsson–Floberg–Olsson cavitation boundary condition. The film rupture and film reformation boundaries were assumed to be unchanged under infinitesimal perturbation conditions. Governing equations under steady and perturbed states were solved by the finite element method, and then the dynamic characteristics of the spiral groove liquid film seal were theoretically investigated considering the effect of cavitation.

The results indicate that dynamic coefficients considering cavitation are smaller than those neglecting cavitation. The difference value is consistent with the change in cavitation area. The liquid film seal does not suffer axial instability whether considering cavitation, but its angular instability is more likely to occur when cavitation is considered.

For liquid lubricated non-contacting mechanical seals, the dynamic characteristics considering cavitation are investigated. The results are expected to provide a theoretical basis for improving the design method of liquid film seals.