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This study aims to explore the synergistic effect of oxide nanoparticles (ZnO, Fe₂O₃, SiO₂) and cerium nitrate inhibitor on anti-corrosion performance of epoxy coating. First, cerium nitrate inhibitors are absorbed on the surface of various oxide nanoparticles. Thereafter, epoxy nanocomposite coatings have been fabricated on carbon steel substrate using these oxide@Ce nanoparticles as both nano-fillers and nano-inhibitors.

To evaluate the impact of oxides@Ce nanoparticles on mechanical properties of epoxy coating, the abrasion resistance and impact resistance of epoxy coatings have been examined. To study the impact of oxides@Ce nanoparticles on anti-corrosion performance of epoxy coating for steel, the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy has been carried out in 3% NaCl solution.

ZnO@Ce3+ and SiO2@Ce3+ nanoparticles provide more enhancement in the epoxy pore network than modification of the epoxy/steel interface. Whereas, Fe2O3@Ce3+ nanoparticles have more to do with modification of the epoxy/steel interface than to change the epoxy pore network.

Incorporation of both oxide nanoparticles and inorganic inhibitor into the epoxy resin is a promising approach for enhancing the anti-corrosion performance of carbon steel.

The operational framework of external financing in the correlation between the gender of entrepreneurs and firm performance remains to be resolved. This study aims to investigate the mediating effect of external financing on gender-based disparities in private firm performance and to explore its heterogeneity within the Chinese context.

Based on national data from the 10th to 13th Chinese Private Enterprise Survey, this study used a bootstrap-based mediation effect model to analyze the role of external financing as a mediator in the relationship between entrepreneur gender and firm performance.

This study found that external financing is a constructive mediator between entrepreneur gender and firm performance. Heterogeneity analysis revealed that external financing plays a complementary mediation role in the impact of entrepreneur gender on performance in West China. In the tertiary industry, external financing acts as the sole mediator for the impact of gender on firm performance. Notably, this mediating effect is present in non-startups but not in startups.

The findings suggest that external financing can improve the firm performance of female entrepreneurs. Governments and policymakers should strengthen financial support for female entrepreneurs in West China, tertiary industry and non-startup enterprises.

This paper contributes to the literature on gender and corporate governance by shedding light on the mediating role of external financing in the relationship between the gender of business owners and firm performance.

Every business company deals with the dilemma of how much to invest in long-term (LT) versus short-term (ST) problem (LTvST problem). LT operations increase the reputation of the company, and revenue is rewarded in the future. In contrast, ST operations result in immediate rewards. Thus, every organization faces the dilemma of how much to invest in LT versus ST activities. The former deals with the “what” or effectiveness, and the latter deals with the “how” or efficiency. The role of managers is to solve this dilemma; however, they often fail to do so, mainly because of a lack of knowledge. This study aims to propose a dynamic optimal control model that formulates and solves the LTvST problem.

This study proposes a dynamic optimal control model that formulates and solves the dilemma whether to invest in short- or LT operations.

This model is illustrated as an example of an academic institute that wants to maximize its reputation. Investing in effectiveness in the academy translates into investing in research, whereas investing in efficiency translates into investing in teaching. Universities and colleges with a good reputation attract stronger candidates and benefit from higher tuition fees. Steady-state conditions and insightful observations were obtained by studying the optimal solution and performing a sensitivity analysis.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first one to explore the optimal strategy when trying to maximize the short and LT activities of a company and solve the LTvST problem. Furthermore, it is applied on universities where teaching is the ST activity and research the LT activity. The insights gleaned from the application are relevant to many different fields. The authors believe that the paper makes a significant contribution to academic literature and to business managers.

Cyberloafing is an organization-directed counterproductive work behavior (CWB). One stream of literature deems cyberloafing to be bad for organizations and their employees, while another suggests cyberloafing is a coping response to stressful work events. Our work contributes to the latter stream of literature. The key objective of our study is to examine whether cyberloafing could be a means to cope with a stressful work event-abusive supervision, and if yes, what mediating and boundary conditions are involved. For this investigation, the authors leveraged the Stressor-Emotion-CWB theory which posits that individuals engage in CWB to cope with the negative affect generated by the stressors and that this relationship is moderated at the first stage by personality traits.

Using a multi-wave survey design, the authors collected data from 357 employees working in an Indian IT firm. Results revealed support for three out of the four hypotheses.

Based on the Stressor-Emotion-CWB theory, the authors found that work-related negative affect fully mediated the positive relationship between abusive supervision and cyberloafing, and work locus of control (WLOC) moderated the positive relationship between abusive supervision and work-related negative affect. The authors did not find any evidence of a direct relationship between abusive supervision and cyberloafing. Also, the positive indirect relationship between abusive supervision and cyberloafing through work-related negative affect was moderated at the first stage by the WLOC such that the indirect effect was stronger (weaker) at high (low) levels of WLOC.

This work demonstrates that cyberloafing could be a way for employees to cope with their abusive supervisors.

Understandings of house prices and their interrelationships have undoubtedly drawn a great amount of attention from various market participants. This study aims to investigate the monthly newly-built residential house price indices of seventy Chinese cities during a 10-year period spanning January 2011–December 2020 for understandings of issues related to their interdependence and synchronizations.

Analysis here is facilitated through network analysis together with topological and hierarchical characterizations of price comovements.

This study determines eight sectoral groups of cities whose house price indices are directly connected and the price synchronization within each group is higher than that at the national level, although each shows rather idiosyncratic patterns. Degrees of house price comovements are generally lower starting from 2018 at the national level and for the eight sectoral groups. Similarly, this study finds that the synchronization intensity associated with the house price index of each city generally switches to a lower level starting from early 2019.

Results here should be of use to policy design and analysis aiming at housing market evaluations and monitoring.

Due to the vital role of innovation for firms to respond to the change and achieve competitive advantage, the purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of knowledge-oriented leadership (KOL) on innovation performance via the mediating role of knowledge sharing (KS). This study also explores the moderating role of organizational justice in the relationship between KS and innovation performance.

Analysis of moment structures and structural equation modeling are applied to examine the relationship among the latent factors in the proposed research model using data collected from 335 participants in 121 manufacturing and service firms in Vietnam.

The findings revealed that KOL serves as a key precursor to foster innovation performance directly or indirectly through active and passive KS behaviors. In addition, the paper highlights the moderating role of organizational justice in strengthening the impact of KS activities on innovation performance.

By highlighting the important role of KOL for stimulating KS behaviors, this paper provides a valuable understanding and novel approach for firms to improve innovation performance. The research findings support the idea that building a climate of justice is crucial to enhance the effects of KS on innovation performance.

This study contributes to bridging the research gaps in the literature and advances the insights of how KOL directly and indirectly stimulates innovation performance via mediating roles of active and passive KS processes under the climate of justice.

Grounded in dynamic capabilities theory, this study aims to examine how dynamic capabilities and a transactive memory system (TMS) can build the resilience of service organizations and improve their financial performance. Limited studies examine the link between a TMS and organizational resilience.

The authors test a theoretical model on a sample of 350 UK service firms that were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and analyze the data using partial least square structural equation modeling.

Results highlight the positive effects of a TMS and dynamic capabilities on organizational resilience. Only a TMS and organizational resilience have direct positive effects on financial performance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to ascertain the influence of a TMS on organizational resilience in service firms following adversity.

The food industry is continuously developing its online services called food delivery applications (FDAs). This study aims to evaluate FDA's importance–performance and identify strategies to maximize its potential gains from a business partner's perspective.

Data are collected from 208 FDA partners in Indonesia. Importance–performance analysis (IPA) is applied to evaluate the FDA feature and extended the theory of potential gain in customer value (PGCV) to achieve potential gains from FDA business partners.

This study provides a clear and measurable direction for future research to develop FDA performance. Owning customer data, revenue sharing and competitive advantage are the most potential gains from joining the FDA from the business partner perspective.

The respondents are restaurants from the micro, small, and medium enterprises levels. Further research should involve middle to upper level restaurants to discover all business partners' perceptions. This will be very helpful for FDA providers interested in improving the best performance for all their partners.

FDA providers must focus on improving and maintaining the features of owning customer data, revenue sharing, competitive advantage, stable terms and conditions, customer interface, building customer loyalty, online presence, user credit rating, promotion and offers, delivery service and sales enhancement to increase consumer satisfaction and meet the expectations desired by business partners.

This research provides a meaningful theoretical foundation for future work. It extends the theory of PGCV using the value of a partner perspective as a substitute for customer value; hence, the authors call it a potential gain in partner value.

Abusive supervision provokes subordinates’ interpersonal deviant behavior. It is, therefore, essential to explore the contingent factors of this relationship. Drawing upon gender role theory, this study aims to explore how subordinate and leader genders moderate the relationship between abusive supervision and subordinate interpersonal deviance. Furthermore, this study posits a three-way interaction effect of abusive supervision with leader and subordinate genders on interpersonal deviance.

Multisource survey data were collected from 45 supervisors and 170 subordinates in eight companies in China. The data were analyzed using the PROCESS macro in SPSS.

The results showed that the positive relationship between abusive supervision and interpersonal deviance was stronger among female leaders than male leaders. Furthermore, the authors found a three-way interaction effect between abusive supervision and leader and subordinate genders on subordinates’ interpersonal deviance. Compared with female subordinates, male subordinates engaged in significantly more interpersonal deviance when experiencing abusive supervision from a female leader than from a male leader.

The authors reveal that gender differences exist in the effect of abusive supervision on subordinates’ interpersonal deviant behavior. Furthermore, the authors demonstrate that subordinate and leader genders jointly influence the effect of abusive supervision. Finally, the findings extend the literature on gender’s moderating effects from constructive and neutral leader behaviors to destructive leader behaviors.

This study is designed to bridge a gap in the existing leadership communication literature by delving into lesser-explored facets of the field. It particularly concentrates on investigating how the verbal aggressiveness of supervisors influences various aspects of the workplace, including workplace emotional culture, the quality of employee–organization relationships (EORs) and the prevalence of counterproductive work behaviors (CWB).

This study employed a quantitative research design to investigate the impact of supervisors' verbal aggressiveness on employee and organizational outcomes. The data were collected from 392 full-time employees across various organizations and industries in the USA using a self-report questionnaire. The researchers used structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the data and test hypotheses.

The findings of this study showed that supervisors' verbal aggressiveness had a significant positive association with negative emotional culture and employee CWB. However, it had no direct impact on employee–organization relationships. The effect of supervisor verbal aggressiveness on employee CWB was found to be mediated by a negative team-level emotional culture.

This study advances the literature on leadership communication by highlighting the detrimental influence of the dark side of leadership communication. More specifically, by identifying negative emotional culture and employee CWB as the direct outcomes of supervisor verbal aggressiveness, the authors add to the existing theoretical knowledge on verbal aggressiveness in the workplace. Additionally, this study provides empirical evidence of the impact of a negative emotional culture on eliciting employees' CWBs and diminishing relationship quality, adding to the body of knowledge on why managing emotional culture is crucial for organizations and workgroups.