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Based on two dominant perspectives, team climate and knowledge integration, on team innovation, this study aims to propose a moderated mediation model to examine the interactive effect of inter-team trust and goal clarity on team innovation through knowledge inflows into a team. Considering the two perspectives at the same time will provide a more complete picture on our understanding on team innovation.

The research model is tested on 150 retail teams of a large apparel firm. Data are collected from two separate surveys, one to store managers and one to store staff members. Moderation mediation regression analysis is conducted on the survey data.

The regression analysis identified both a positive direct effect of goal clarity on innovation, and a negative moderating effect of goal clarity on the mediation of knowledge inflows between inter-team trust and innovation. In other words, inter-team trust is positively related to team innovation through knowledge inflows when goal clarity is low.

In this study, the authors identify an indirect and negative role of goal clarity on team innovation, and examine the mechanism and boundary of inter-team trust on team innovation. Managers are advised to foster a trusting environment and be aware of cognitive bias in their teams so that their teams can be more innovative.

This study examines how the Fortune 500 use transactional public Web sites (TPWS). It applies innovation diffusion theory to identify variables and construct a model to explain differences in adoption rates of TPWS across industries. The study finds high rates of TPWS adoption in the airline, computer and office equipment, commercial banking, and retailing industries. The study also explains why the rates of TPWS adoption vary across different industries. Characteristics of both the innovation and the industry’s environment affect TPWS adoption. A high level of TPWS adoption is associated with industries where: products, services, and sales processes “fit” electronic transactions, the level of price competition is extreme, competitors are aggressively adopting the same technology, and firms are experienced with related technologies and have already developed the necessary information technology infrastructure. The study is significant because it identifies the specific innovation and environmental characteristics that drive varying rates of TPWS adoption among large firms across different industries.

In this paper it is argued that universities have lost their monopoly on the production and legitimation of knowledge. That workplaces are now sites of “valid” knowledge is a given. The information age affects many aspects of working life and we are now subject to highly automated and computerised systems and networks. This poses a range of challenges for the universities of the twenty‐first century if they are to retain their place as a vital part of the social fabric.

Grounded in agency and clan theories, this study aims to examine how, when and why joint liability works as a control mechanism to reduce opportunism among tea supplier groups in China.

Survey data from 82 supplier groups (three respondents per group) were collected.

Joint liability is related positively to peer monitoring (as mediator) and negatively to opportunism, whereas the mediated relationship is moderated positively by group leaders’ perceived legitimate authority and negatively by reciprocity and shared norms.

Opportunism is operationalized as the use of illegal pesticides, the violation of manufacturer–supplier contractual agreements and joint liability, as suppliers’ liability of having the whole group’s seasonal production is rejected by the manufacturer if a single act of opportunism is detected in the group.

Our study demonstrates how and under what conditions the joint-liability mechanism is linked with the reduction of multi-suppliers’ opportunism. We pave the way for future applications of the control mechanism to fields related to inter-organizational governance. Most importantly, we apply Ouchi’s clan theory (1979, 1980) to conceptualize manufacturer–supplier and supplier–supplier relationships in China and provide first-hand evidence to validate its applicability and generalizability to the context. The study also offers insights on network influences in inter-organizational relationships (Gu et al., 2010; Wathne and Heide, 2004) and confirms the important roles of network factors in inter-organizational relationships. In particular, peer monitoring operates as a mediator and normative factors operate as facilitators (moderators) for the joint liability to work as a mechanism to control opportunism in this relationship context.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of the novel service encounter with reference to three research questions: first, what kind of creative acts do frontline employees undertake during a novel service encounter? Second, how does the novel service encounter correlate with service innovation? Third, how does it vary in different market environments? The novel service encounter refers to creative acts undertaken by frontline staff working at the employee-customer interface. These acts are important sources of new ideas for service innovation and demand systematic study.

Methods in this study are triangulated by combining interviews, field observations and a survey to develop an observation template for examining the creative acts undertaken by frontline employees during service encounters in an international tourist apparel retailer.

This paper provides initial empirical evidence of the process of the novel service encounter and highlights the use of participant observation as a useful methodology.

This paper contributes to the service innovation literature by examining the novel service encounter using an observation template that takes into account its process-driven nature. It is suggested that improvisation by frontline employees during the service encounter is crucial to innovation, and a standardized service does not fit every situation.

Presents an overview of how traditional learning methods have changed, leading to more opportunities for partnerships between universities and industry.

The author discusses the evolution of work‐based learning which is challenging universities previous monopoly as the key source for learning.

While the role of universities as the sole source of knowledge has diminished over recent years, universities do still have a key role to play in the overall development of essential lifelong learning.

Offers advice as to how universities and industry can work together to promote learning.

Provides training managers clear, tangible benefits for working in close partnership with universities.

Drawing on the signaling theory and the relational exchange theory, this study investigates how buyer–supplier trust is influenced through the congruence and incongruence between blockchain and norm of solidarity. The moderating role of technology uncertainty is further examined.

Using a survey data of 110 Chinese firms, this study empirically tests not only the combined effect of blockchain and norm of solidarity on trust, but also how this combined effect is moderated by technology uncertainty. The proposed hypotheses are tested using the polynomial regression analysis and the response surface methodology.

The results suggest that trust increases along with an increasing congruence between blockchain and norm or solidarity, but in a diminishing rate (i.e. an inverted U-shaped relationship). Simultaneously, incongruence between blockchain and norm of solidarity can also guarantee sufficient trust (i.e. a U-shaped relationship). Moreover, technology uncertainty overturns the inverted U-shaped relationship between blockchain and norm of solidarity congruence on trust into a U-shaped relationship and nullifies the U-shaped relationship between blockchain and norm of solidarity incongruence on trust.

This study enriches supply chain governance literature by introducing the emerging blockchain governance and examining the blockchain governance's interplay with a conventional relational norm. The study emphasizes that the combined effects of these two are quite complex. Blockchain and norm of solidarity can offset each other’s limitations when both are at low to moderate levels. But simultaneous pursuit of both high blockchain and norm has only limited marginal benefits. Furthermore, the study also highlights the importance of technology uncertainty under which the combined effects between the two governance mechanisms vary. Collectively, the results provide nuanced insights into the design of supply chain governance portfolios in the digital era.