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This research helps firms pursue an open innovation strategy but want to minimize competitive pressure from other external entities. A theoretical framework is constructed to analyze the impact of openness on innovation performance, exploring different effect of firms' external search channels.

This paper employs a stepwise hierarchical regression approach to assess the effect of openness on technological innovation considering the role of information technology adoption and political ties. The effect is conducted using a large-scale sample of 1,073 Chinese manufacturing firms over the period 2011–2013 as empirical research objects.

There are two stages of the open technological innovation process while the information technology (IT) adoption and political ties are the key consideration in emerging markets. Openness is curvilinearly (taking an inverted U-shape) related to innovation performance. Both information technology adoption and political ties generally help firms to turn broadly sourced external knowledge into technological innovation performance. This will stimulate “one plus one is greater than two” effect not only in the process of achieving performance goals, but also in the process of technological innovation.

This quantitative research illustrates the importance relationship between firms' open behaviors and technological innovation performance in emerging markets. It helps us understand firms' current constrains of open strategy of technological innovation and helps domestic or foreign investors to make strategic collaboration choices in emerging economies according to the degree of openness, informatization level, political connections, which is equally important for research and practice.

The paper aims to study the relationship between corporate social responsibility, green supply chain management, and operational performance and the moderating effects of relational capital on these relationships.

The authors conduct an empirical study with a structural equation modeling approach to investigate the relationship between corporate social responsibility—constructed by the quality and environmental responsibility, green supply chain management—including green supplier and customer management and operational performance—manifested by quality, cost, flexibility, and delivery performance using data from 308 manufacturers in China. Besides, the authors explore the moderating effect of supplier and customer relational capital on these relationships.

The findings indicate that a company's quality and environmental responsibility significantly impacts its green supply chain management practices, which further improve its operational performance in quality, cost, flexibility, and delivery. In addition, supplier and customer relational capital strengthens the influence of environmental responsibility on green supply chain management. While supplier relational capital reinforces the impact of green supplier management on flexibility and delivery performance, customer relational capital only strengthens the influence of green customer management on flexibility performance.

The study enriches the extant literature by developing a holistic framework integrating corporate social responsibility, green supply chain management, relational capital, and operational performance and unraveling their intricate relationships. The authors’ findings help practitioners prioritize proactive steps in environmental conservation more than achieving operational performance.

This study aims to examine the joint effect of internal quality integration and product innovation on financial performance by considering the mediating roles of incremental and radical product innovation.

A theoretical framework was developed using the organizational capability view. Based on empirical survey data collected from 209 Chinese manufacturing firms, this research uses structural equation modeling and the bootstrapping method to test hypotheses.

The results show that internal quality integration positively impacts incremental and radical product innovation and financial performance. Further, incremental product innovation can promote radical product innovation. Both incremental and radical product innovation partially mediate the relationship between internal quality integration and financial performance.

The findings provide practical guidance for manufacturing companies to engage in quality integration and product innovation. Managers should encourage the internal functional departments to coordinate quality integration while promoting incremental and radical product innovation to occupy a larger market and achieve higher performance.

This research contributes to the literature in two ways. First, this study expands the theoretical research framework of the joint effects of quality integration and product innovation on financial performance. Second, through testing the mediating role of product innovation, this study provides empirical evidence for the intermediate role of internal quality integration for improving financial performance.

The importance of the agri-food supply chain in both food production and distribution has made the issue of its development a critical concern. Based on configuration theory and congruence theory, this research investigates the complex impact of supply chain concentration on financial growth in agri-food supply chains.

The cluster analysis and response surface methodology are employed to analyse the data collected from 207 Chinese agri-food companies from 2010 to 2022.

The results indicate that different combination patterns of supply chain concentration can lead to different levels of financial growth. We discover that congruent supplier and customer concentration is beneficial for companies’ financial growth. This impact is more pronounced when the company is in the agricultural production stage of agri-food supply chains. Post-hoc analysis indicates that there exists an inverted U-shaped relationship between the overall levels of supply chain concentration and financial growth.

Our research uncovers the complex interplay between supply chain base and financial outcomes, thereby revealing significant ramifications for agri-food supply chain managers to optimise their strategies for exceptional financial growth.

This study proposes a combined approach of cluster analysis and response surface analysis for analysing configuration issues in supply chain management.

To develop an automated system for identifying and repairing cracks in asphalt pavements, addressing the urgent need for efficient pavement maintenance solutions amidst increasing workloads and decreasing budgets.

The research was conducted in two main stages: Crack identification: Utilizing the U-Net deep learning model for pixel-level segmentation to identify pavement cracks, followed by morphological operations such as thinning and spur removal to refine the crack trajectories. Automated crack repair path planning: Developing an enhanced hybrid ant colony greedy algorithm (EAC-GA), which integrates the ant colony (AC) algorithm, greedy algorithm (GA) and three local enhancement strategies – PointsExchange, Cracks2OPT and Nearby Cracks 2OPT – to plan the most efficient repair paths with minimal redundant distance.

The EAC-GA demonstrated significant advantages in solution quality compared to the GA, the traditional AC and the AC-GA. Experimental validation on repair areas with varying numbers of cracks (16, 26 and 36) confirmed the effectiveness and scalability of the proposed method.

The originality of this research lies in the application of advanced deep learning and optimization algorithms to the specific problem of pavement crack repair. The value is twofold: Technological innovation in the field of pavement maintenance, offering a more efficient and automated approach to a common and costly issue. The potential for significant economic and operational benefits, particularly in the context of reduced maintenance budgets and increasing maintenance demands.

This paper aims to investigate the influence of sinusoidal texture (ST) with different morphology parameters on the corresponding tribological effects.

The STs with different amplitudes, ranging from 0.05 to 0.3 mm, and frequencies, ranging from 5 to 17.5, are fabricated using nanosecond pulsed laser equipment. The friction experiments and the finite element analysis method are combined to investigate the tribological properties, under dry friction conditions.

Test results show that when the amplitude is 0.15 mm and frequency is 10, ST surface has the lowest friction coefficient of 0.373, and exhibits great anti-friction effect. It also possesses a complete texture edge after friction. The friction reduction effect of ST with larger or smaller amplitude and frequency is worse.

The results of this study can provide a guidance for the design optimization of ST of reciprocating sliding contact surfaces, under dry friction conditions.

Value co-creation (VCC) helps platforms establish competitive advantages. Unlike their traditional counterparts, social attribute is a key concept of social e-commerce platforms. This study integrates VCC and social network theories, introduces relational embeddedness and divides this variable into economic and social relational embeddedness to explore its impact on VCC intention. This study also explores the mediating and moderating roles of customers' psychological ownership (CPO) and regulatory focus, respectively.

A questionnaire survey was conducted among users of mainstream social e-commerce platforms in China, and the relationship among the variables was revealed through a structural equation modeling of 464 valid responses.

The dimensions of relational embeddedness positively affect CPO and VCC intention, with social relational embeddedness exerting the strongest effect. CPO positively affects VCC intention and partially mediates the relationship between relational embeddedness and VCC intention. Promotion and prevention focus positively and negatively moderate the relationship between CPO and VCC intention, respectively.

This study expands the VCC research perspective and links the VCC concepts to social network dynamics. From the relational embeddedness perspective, this study identifies the type and intensity of relational embeddedness that promotes users' VCC intention and contributes to theoretical research on VCC and relational embeddedness. This study also introduces CPO as an intermediary variable, thus opening the black box of this mechanism, and confirms the moderating role of regulatory focus as the key psychological factor motivating users' VCC intention.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and innovation are the two main approaches firms utilize to promote sustainable development. However, as yet, scholars have reached no consensus regarding their precise impact on construction firm performance (CFP), hindering efforts to implement effective sustainable development strategies that improve CFP. In view that a simple linear relationship may not be sufficient to capture their precise pattern, this study aims to unveil the nonlinear impact of CSR and innovation on CFP, especially when construction firms take up a distinct competitive position.

This study first proposed four hypotheses to establish a new theoretical model by incorporating CSR, innovation, CFP and construction firms' competitive position (CFCP). Then the model was tested by using 292 annual observations collected from 75 construction firms in China. A multiple regression model analysis was carried out to analyze the survey data and validate the hypotheses.

The results reveal that both CSR and innovation have a U-shaped impact on the price-to-book ratio of a construction firm, a specific CFP measure. CFCP negatively moderates the U-shaped relationship between CSR and CFP, but positively moderates the U-shaped relationship between innovation and CFP.

This study goes beyond a simple linear view, instead of unveiling the nonlinear U-shaped effects of CSR and innovation on CFP that deepen the understanding of their complex relationships in the construction industry and makes construction firms aware that CSR and innovation can only improve performance if they reach a certain level. The moderating role of CFCP provides important implications for construction firms seeking to adopt appropriate competitive strategies related to social responsibility and innovation that both promote CFP and achieve sustainable development.

This paper aims to present a novel hybrid time integration approach for efficient numerical simulations of multiscale problems involving interactions of electromagnetic fields with fine structures.

The entire computational domain is discretized with a coarse grid and a locally refined subgrid containing the tiny objects. On the coarse grid, the time integration of Maxwell’s equations is realized by the conventional finite-difference technique, while on the subgrid, the unconditionally stable Krylov-subspace-exponential method is adopted to breakthrough the Courant–Friedrichs–Lewy stability condition.

It is shown that in contrast with the conventional finite-difference time-domain method, the proposed approach significantly reduces the memory costs and computation time while providing comparative results.

An efficient hybrid time integration approach for numerical simulations of multiscale electromagnetic problems is presented.

Given the increasing intensity of highly competitive markets, this study aims to evaluate the effect of salespeople's emotional regulation, adaptive selling and customer-oriented behavior on sales performance.

A research model was tested by using a sample of 288 respondents from the logistics industry in Taiwan. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships between emotional regulation, adaptive selling, job resourcefulness, customer-oriented behavior and sales performance.

The results indicate that emotional regulation, adaptive selling and job resourcefulness can improve customer-oriented behavior, and that customer-oriented behavior and job resourcefulness can enhance sales performance. By highlighting the role of job resourcefulness, the authors find a positive moderating effect among these four dimensions.

The findings can help salespeople integrate customer-oriented behaviors into strategic changes to regulate their own emotions and those of others to productively address and resolve difficult business conditions. The theoretical and managerial implications of this work's contributions to international logistics are also discussed.