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1 – 9 of 9Fang Jia, Zhilin Yang and Ling (Alice) Jiang
The purpose of this paper is to examine the importance of channel partners’ government relations within channel performance and explore how institutional factors interact to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the importance of channel partners’ government relations within channel performance and explore how institutional factors interact to influence channel performance. A theoretical framework, inclusive of hypotheses, is proposed to demonstrate the interaction of government relations and institutional environments on firm performance. Drawing on an institutional perspective, this paper suggests that the effect of partner’s government relations on firm performance is moderated by institutional environment factors, such as government interference, legal protection, and the importance of guanxi.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducted a questionnaire survey and collected data from 393 Chinese manufacturer managers in China.
Findings
Partner’s government relations increase focal firm’s performance and this effect is moderated by different levels of legal protection. Partner’s government relations increase firm performance only in the context of high-legal protection; whereas, when legal protection is low, partner’s government relations decrease focal firm performance. As for the interaction of institutional factors, legal protection and importance of guanxi, all three moderate the negative effect of government interference on firm performance.
Originality/value
This paper provides insights on how channel partner’s government relations, representing a key institutional capital, interact with institutional environment factors to influence channel performance.
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Xiaoyan Wang, Ping Li, Yi Zheng, Ling (Alice) Jiang and Zhilin Yang
Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory and the motivation-opportunity-ability (MOA) framework, this study examines how salespersons' self-monitoring and psychological…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory and the motivation-opportunity-ability (MOA) framework, this study examines how salespersons' self-monitoring and psychological capital influence sales performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses survey data from 293 salespersons employed in China and their archival sales performance to test the hypotheses posited.
Findings
The results show that both salespersons' self-monitoring and psychological capital enhance sales performance via adaptive selling. However, these elements are primarily substitutes in influencing adaptive selling. In addition, by dividing social capital into two types (i.e. family-based social capital and customer-based social capital), the results reveal that salespersons' self-monitoring enhances family-based social capital, but not customer-based social capital. Finally, customer-based social capital, but not family-based capital, improves sales performance.
Research limitations/implications
This paper extends the literature on sales force management, which examines various psychological traits and their influences on sales performance. While self-monitoring and psychological capital have been investigated separately, this research simultaneously examines these two factors by drawing on resource conservation theory. Furthermore, it explores how these psychological traits impact salespersons' ability development (i.e. adaptive selling) and capital accumulation (i.e., family-based social capital and customer-based social capital), which, in turn, affect sales performance.
Practical implications
The results offer managerial insights into sales force selection and management. In particular, managers should encourage salespersons to obtain greater customer-based social capital, which is more valuable than family-based social capital in boosting sales performance.
Social implications
The present research is also beneficial for employee psychological health management, as it seeks to illuminate the role of psychological traits, ability development and capital accumulation. It offers insights into sociological research on social capital by categorizing it into family-based and customer-based capital.
Originality/value
This paper extends the literature on salespersons' psychological traits, selling abilities and social capital by examining the impacts of self-monitoring and psychological capital on adaptive selling and social capital. Specifically, this study examines the interplay between self-monitoring and psychological capital from the perspective of resources conservation theory.
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Ling (Alice) Jiang, Zhilin Yang and Minjoon Jun
The purpose of this paper is to identify the key convenience dimensions of online shopping, as convenience has been one of the principal motivations underlying customer…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the key convenience dimensions of online shopping, as convenience has been one of the principal motivations underlying customer inclinations to adopt online shopping.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors first employ in‐depth focus group interviews with online consumers to identify the attributes of online shopping convenience and then develop and validate an instrument of five key dimensions to measure online shopping convenience by analyzing data collected via a Web‐based questionnaire survey.
Findings
The five dimensions of online shopping convenience are: access, search, evaluation, transaction, and possession/post‐purchase convenience.
Practical implications
Online retailers can employ the five‐factor measurement instrument to assess the degree of customer perceived online shopping convenience. This instrument can assist managers in identifying and overcoming key obstacles to the delivery of a highly convenient online shopping service to customers, and also helps them enlarge their loyal customer base.
Originality/value
This study focuses on uncovering the key dimensions of convenience and their associated sub‐dimensions specific to the context of online shopping. Theoretically, the identified dimensions and their related sub‐items comprise a validated scale for measuring Web‐based service convenience and can serve as building blocks for further studies in e‐commerce customer relationship management.
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Allan K.K. Chan and Yue‐Yuan Huang
Reports a study of 1,304 Chinese brand names of ten types of products in China. These brand names are content analyzed following a linguistic approach which the authors developed…
Abstract
Reports a study of 1,304 Chinese brand names of ten types of products in China. These brand names are content analyzed following a linguistic approach which the authors developed from their earlier studies. The ten types of brand names are presented in three broad categories representing the three different developing stages of the consumer product industry in China: brands of traditional products (illustrated by matches and spirits), brands of traditional products with current development (illustrated by bicycles, shoes, and toothpastes), and brands of new and modern products (illustrated by cosmetics, soft drinks, washing machines, refrigerators and TV sets). The conclusion drawn from the analysis is that one of the variables in determining how linguistic principles are being applied to Chinese brand naming is the respective stages of development of such products in the context of the Chinese market economy.
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Gerry Edgar, Amirali Kharazmi, Sedigheh Behzadi and Omid Ali Kharazmi
This research is an empirical study that addresses whether knowledge resources impact on, or do not impact on, innovation development and if this impact is mediated by dynamic…
Abstract
Purpose
This research is an empirical study that addresses whether knowledge resources impact on, or do not impact on, innovation development and if this impact is mediated by dynamic capabilities in the medical tourism sector in Mashhad city, Iran.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative research methodology was applied and questionnaires were used for data collection in this study. A total of 108 questionnaires were collected of which 102 questionnaires were valid. Data were analyzed using structural equation modelling technique.
Findings
Empirical evidence obtained from the study reveals that the dynamic capability of learning plays a significant role in transforming knowledge resources into innovation in the medical tourism sector. The mediating role of coordinating capability in the relationship between explicit and tacit knowledge and innovation is considerable and it influences human capital, as well. Sensing capability also exhibits some degree of a mediating role; however, integrating capability is not influential and its role in transforming explicit knowledge to innovation is rejected.
Originality/value
Most studies on innovation in medical tourism focused on market and its typology, and neglected the role of knowledge resources and dynamic capabilities. The current study bridges this gap and thus contributes to the scientific literature.
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Mohan Liyanage, Chii Chang and Satish Narayana Srirama
The distant data centre-centric Internet of Things (IoT) systems face the latency issue especially in the real-time-based applications, such as augmented reality, traffic…
Abstract
Purpose
The distant data centre-centric Internet of Things (IoT) systems face the latency issue especially in the real-time-based applications, such as augmented reality, traffic analytics and ambient assisted living. Recently, Fog computing models have been introduced to overcome the latency issue by using the proximity-based computational resources, such as the computers co-located with the cellular base station, grid router devices or computers in local business. However, the increasing users of Fog computing servers cause bottleneck issues and consequently the latency issue arises again. This paper aims to introduce the utilisation of Mist computing (Mist) model, which exploits the computational and networking resources from the devices at the very edge of the IoT networks.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper proposes a service-oriented mobile-embedded Platform as a Service (mePaaS) framework that allows the mobile device to provide a flexible platform for proximal users to offload their computational or networking program to mePaaS-based Mist computing node.
Findings
The prototype has been tested and performance has been evaluated on the real-world devices. The evaluation results have shown the promising nature of mePaaS.
Originality/value
The proposed framework supports resource-aware autonomous service configuration that can manage the availability of the functions provided by the Mist node based on the dynamically changing hardware resource availability. In addition, the framework also supports task distribution among a group of Mist nodes.
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Ernesto Tavoletti and Vas Taras
This study aims to offer a bibliometric analysis of the already substantial and growing literature on global virtual teams (GVTs).
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to offer a bibliometric analysis of the already substantial and growing literature on global virtual teams (GVTs).
Design/methodology/approach
Using a systematic literature review approach, it identifies all articles in the Web of Science from 1999 to 2021 that include the term GVTs (in the title, the abstract or keywords) and finds 175 articles. The VOSviewer software was applied to analyze the bibliometric data.
Findings
The analysis revealed three dialogizing research clusters in the GVTs literature: a pioneering management information systems and organizational cluster, a general management cluster and a growing international management and behavioural studies cluster. Furthermore, it highlights the most cited articles, authors, journals and nations, and the network of strong and weak links regarding co-authorships and co-citations. Additionally, this study shows a change in research patterns regarding topics, journals and disciplinary approaches from 1999 to 2021. Finally, the analysis illustrates the position and centrality in the network of the most relevant actors.
Practical implications
The findings can guide management practitioners, educators and researchers to the most meaningful clusters of publications on GVTs, and help navigate and make sense of the vast body of the available literature. The importance of GVTs has been growing in the past two decades, and Covid-19 has accelerated the trend.
Originality/value
This study provides an updated and comprehensive systematic literature review on GVTs. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is also the first systematic literature review and bibliometry on GVTs. It concludes by suggesting future research paths.
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