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Research in performance feedback has suggested that supervisors are reluctant to deliver negative feedback to avoid difficult future interaction and other unfavourable reactions from subordinates. This study examines the counter effects of mediating factors of negative feedback. A total of 248 employees from two joint ventures in China took part in a questionnaire survey. Results of the study indicate that subordinates who perceive that a criticism is delivered for their benefit respond positively. Theoretical importance and managerial implications of the present findings are discussed.

Technology innovation capability is a main driver in improving a country’s industrial competitiveness. Development prospects and development speed are strongly dependent on industry innovation capability. Therefore, how to effectively and correctly evaluate the innovation capability of industry is of great importance. On the basis of previous research, this paper establishes an index system for evaluating the technology innovation capability of China’s high-tech industries. The index is characterized by the objective evaluation of objects with measurable indexes. The fuzzy Borda method uses precise digital methods to handle fuzzy evaluation objects; therefore, more scientific and pragmatic quantitative criteria are obtained with qualitative and quantitative evaluation results. This paper is the first attempt to apply the fuzzy Borda combination method to high-tech industry innovation capability evaluation. We establish a fuzzy Borda combination model based on four kinds of single evaluation models. By making a combination evaluation, the disadvantages of a single evaluation method are avoided. In the end, based on the fuzzy Borda combination evaluation model, the real technology innovation data of 2013 is analyzed and the innovation capability of individual industry is ranked, which will provide useful guidance for decision-making administrators.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships of individual performance appraisal with appraisees' reactions towards their workgroups and the mechanisms underlying these relationships.

A questionnaire survey was conducted involving 185 full‐time employees in China. Regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses.

The results showed that developmental and evaluative performance appraisals were related to appraisee reactions to the workgroup, both positive and negatives, respectively. As expected, these two relationships were mediated by perceived cooperative goals and competitive goals, respectively. Furthermore, procedural justice moderated the positive relationship between evaluative performance appraisal and perceived competitive goals in such a way that the relationship was stronger when perceived procedural justice of the performance appraisal was high.

This is the first paper that links individual performance appraisal to group‐oriented appraisee reactions. The mediating effects of goal interdependence can shed light on the mechanisms underlying these relationships. In addition, the paper extends the current literature on the interaction of outcome favorability with procedural justice by considering the role of procedural justice in accentuating the effect of evaluative performance appraisal on competitive goals within a group.

Drawing on the branded service encounters perspective, the purpose of this study is to investigate how frontline service employees’ environmentally irresponsible behaviors affect customers’ brand evaluations.

The research conducted two experiments. The first experiment explored the effect of frontline service employees’ environmentally irresponsible behaviors on customers’ brand evaluations via corporate hypocrisy. The second experiment explored the moderation effect of employees’ prototypicality and the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) among customers.

Experiment 1 indicates that for firms with a green brand image, frontline employees’ environmentally irresponsible behaviors result in customers’ perception that the firm is hypocritical, thus reducing their brand evaluations. Experiment 2 shows that employee prototypicality and CSR importance to the customer enhance the negative impact of frontline employees’ environmentally irresponsible behaviors on customers’ brand evaluations through customers’ perception of corporate hypocrisy.

This study is one of the first efforts to explore how frontline service employees’ environmentally irresponsible behaviors affect customers’ responses. It helps understand the impact of frontline employees’ counter-productive sustainable behaviors on customers’ brand perception, as well as the relationship between CSR and employees.

This study suggests that firms’ green brand image does not always lead to positive customer response. When frontline employees’ behaviors are inconsistent with firms’ green brand image, it can trigger customers’ perceptions of corporate hypocrisy and thus influence their brand evaluations. Therefore, firms should train frontline service employees to make their behaviors align with the firms’ green brand image.

This study is one of the first efforts to explore how frontline service employees’ environmentally irresponsible behaviors affect customers’ responses. It helps understand the impact of frontline employees’ counter-productive sustainable behaviors on customers’ brand perception, as well as the relationship between CSR and employee.

This study aims to analyze the ways in which chief executive officers (CEOs) communicate via Twitter and help develop guidelines for effective tweeting strategies that can leverage Twitter in leadership communication.

The authors conduct a large-scale content analysis of more than 65,000 tweets by 338 CEOs.

The authors propose a model that categorizes differences in CEO tweets along six independent dimensions: content professionalism, language professionalism, emotional valence, emotion activation, interactional efforts and information cues. The authors also develop coding schemes and measurement scales for each dimension.

This study provides a multi-dimensional paradigm as well as useful tools for future research on corporate leadership communication on social media.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the antecedents of manager voice in Chinese business from the theory of plan behavior perspective. The paper focuses on how antecedents including organization‐based self‐esteem, psychological ownership, and supervisor‐subordinate guanxi influence manager voice. It also examines the cross‐level moderating effect of Chinese indigenous leadership style authoritarian leadership on the relationships between antecedents and manager voice.

A literature review on manager voice, organization‐based self‐esteem, psychological ownership, supervisor‐subordinate guanxi, and authoritarian leadership provided the model and hypothesis. Using a sample of 262 supervisor‐subordinate dyads collected in Chinese business, a cross‐level analysis was conducted to test the model and hypothesis.

The results of hierarchical linear modeling show that on a individual level, in comparison with the organization‐based self‐esteem and psychological ownership, supervisor‐subordinate guanxi is a more critical factor influencing manager voice; on a group level, authoritarian leadership is negatively related to manager voice; and authoritarian leadership moderates the relationship between the supervisor‐subordinate guanxi and the manager voice: for weak authoritarian leadership group, the positive relationship between supervisor‐subordinate guanxi and manager voice is stronger.

It was a cross‐sectional study, and the samples were limited to Chinese business. It is necessary to replicate this research in other organization contexts. The results indicate that indigenous guanxi and authoritarian leadership significantly influence manager voice, which advances voice research in Chinese management studies.

Results of the study suggest top Chinese business leaders should strengthen the interpersonal relationship between supervisors and subordinates in order to encourage manager voice. Moreover, the top leaders should change their authoritarian leadership to facilitate voice behavior.

The paper is original in its investigation on how Chinese indigenous organizational factors – guanxi and authoritarian leadership – influence manager voice. The paper also explains the relationships between antecedents and manager voice from a cross‐level perspective.

Widespread adoption of reporting frameworks has contributed to current global practices undertaken by firms to report social, environmental and economic impact. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the most widely used of those frameworks, has produced several generations of guidelines. Their third-generation guidelines (G3), which had the most widespread and long-term use, relied on a series of application levels to convey the quantity and quality of disclosures. The firm’s choice of application level exemplified its corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure strategy. The purpose of this study is to answer the call of scholars for a comprehensive explanation of a firm’s CSR disclosure strategy and suggested researching of the conceptual underpinnings of legitimacy, stakeholder, resource dependence and institutional theories.

Given this call, a comprehensive model is tested that explores relationships arising from these four major theories and the choice of GRI application levels. The model includes four constructs: non-financial corporate characteristics, firm financial performance, stakeholder involvement and environmental turbulence.

Unexpectedly, the findings do not show differences with respect to the theoretical underpinnings of CSR disclosure and the GRI disclosure levels.

Despite their widespread use, GRI was concerned that the G3’s application levels could be misunderstood and that the framework needed conceptual improvement. These concerns led to the elimination of application levels with the launch of GRI’s fourth-generation guidelines (G4) in 2013. The findings support the need for conceptual improvement and the discontinuation of the application level system in the G4 guidelines. They also suggest the need for additional research to examine disclosure choices over time, to make understand corporate disclosure strategies.

Although the value of trusting, long‐term relationships for supply chain management is increasingly recognized, how conflict might contribute to quality supply chain partnerships is not well understood. This study uses research on cooperative and competitive conflict to identify when conflict can help develop productive relationships. Results of structural equation analyses suggest that manufacturers and suppliers who feel interdependent rely upon cooperative approaches to conflict, not competitive or avoiding approaches. Cooperative conflict in turn strengthens trust and a long‐term orientation which result in quality enhancing relationships with suppliers. These results challenge the value of conflict avoidance in East Asia. The theory of cooperative and competitive conflict, although developed largely in North America, seems useful for understanding and building quality supply chain partnerships in East Asia.

This paper seeks to provide empirical evidence showing how bank users of audited financial statements perceive and interpret various dimensions associated with financial reporting in Hong Kong. Employing a survey instrument, we asked bank loan officers to rank the importance of thirty‐five reporting dimensions for lending decisions and to ascertain their expected level of information on each exploratory dimension, as well as their perceptions of the level of information actually provided by audited financial statements. Reliance on principal‐component analysis to extract a set of important dimensions shows that nine reporting dimensions are significantly associated with lending decisions. When bank loan officers' levels of expectations on important reporting dimensions were compared with the corresponding levels of perceived reporting performance, the statistical results reflect the existence of an expectations‐performance gap. Finally, when bank loan officers' perceived levels of reporting performance were hierarchically positioned, audited financial statements were found to provide the most information on a firm's liquidity and profitability, moderate information on reliability‐related dimensions, and the least information on relevance‐related dimensions pertaining to the future prospects of a firm. This empirical evidence signifies the need for future corrective actions in closing the expectations‐performance gap.

The purpose of this study is to provide insights into bootleg innovation by investigating whether perceived hindrance stressors play an important role in bootlegging and how different organizational ownership types (state-owned enterprises (SOEs) vs non-SOEs) affect this relationship.

The study samples comprised 3,967 employees from 674 knowledge-intensive companies in southern China. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses.

Drawing on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, the results show that hindrance stressors have a curvilinear (U-shaped) influence on bootleg innovation, and that the curve relationship between the hindrance stressors and bootlegging is more pronounced among employees in non-SOEs.

The findings indicate that either a low or high level of hindrance stressors can activate a high level of bootlegging activities among employees. These results suggest that managers need to be vigilant in detecting the level of hindrance because different motivations predominate at different stressor levels.

Based on the COR theory, the findings cast perceived hindrance stressors as an antecedent of bootlegging at the individual level. The inquiry into state ownership types further provides a comprehensive understanding of the non-linear relationship between hindrance stressors and bootlegging.