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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.

Innovation during project delivery is contested space. The aim in this research is to empirically explore the theory of this contested space and how project implementation can be optimized by the contractor to deliver better outcomes. It is hypothesized that project innovation has a proportional and measurable relationship to contractor success.

Based on a novel conceptual framework, this research applies a case study methodology to analyse 31 construction projects undertaken by a single Australian middle-tier contractor. Benefits from innovation are not often equitably shared. There are risks and rewards. The project innovation zone is defined as a combination of three key performance indicators – efficacy, efficiency and margin – merged into a single index that most likely shows evidence of “working smarter”.

Client–contractor project innovation (c2pi) is demonstrated to be strongly correlated with head contractor success (HCS), yielding an r² value of 71%. Innovative projects mostly show positive change in efficacy, efficiency and margin when comparing “planned” and “actual” outcomes. Across the cases studied, 35% demonstrated likely evidence of innovative delivery and 52% demonstrated evidence of success from the construction contractor's perspective.

These findings verify that, within the studied sample, the pursuit of innovation leads to projects that are likely to also have greater success for the head contractor, evidenced by the mix of five critical success factors: finishing on schedule, making profit, and having less defects, less accidents and higher quality workmanship. These outcomes arguably also apply to sub-contractors, where the head contractor assumes the role of “client”.

This study intends to explore the relationship between digital finance and the vertical specialization of firms. The following questions are discussed: (1) As a representative new financial development model, what is the role of digital finance in the vertical specialization of firms? (2) If digital finance improves the level of vertical specialization of firms, what is the mechanism behind such improvement? (3) How does digital finance impact the vertical specialization of firms in different regions, industries, and firms?

A two-way fixed-effect model of panel data is proposed to verify the relationship between digital finance and the vertical specialization of firms. This model is constructed by matching the city-level data of digital finance with the data of China's A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2018. Meanwhile, the instrumental variable (IV) method and difference-in-difference (DID) method are adopted to deal with the endogeneity problem of the model.

The authors' study finds that digital finance has significantly improved the level of vertical specialization of firms. The result is robust under the endogeneity consideration and a series of robustness tests. After the dimensionality of the index is reduced, the depth of digital finance usage is more conducive to the improvement of the vertical specialization of firms compared with the width of digital finance coverage and the level of financial digitization. Digital finance mainly improves the level of vertical specialization of firms by reducing transaction costs and increasing the market thickness of the intermediate products. Moreover, digital finance has certain heterogeneity in promoting the vertical specialization of firms, an effect that is more significant in the eastern region, manufacturing industry and state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

The first limitation is the mechanism test. This research only analyzes the mechanism from transaction cost and the market thickness of the intermediate products. With the rapid development of information technology, digital finance will be further integrated into people's production and life. There will then be more mechanisms that should be explored between digital finance and the vertical specialization of firms. Another limitation is the data sample of this paper. The conclusions of this research are based only on the data of listed companies. However, in the authors' opinion, the specialization level of small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) should be higher. Therefore, the conclusions of this work are underestimated, which can be considered as the lower limit of digital finance for enterprise specialization.

As a favorable financing channel to supplement traditional financial service functions, digital finance plays a critical role in the operating efficiency of enterprises and the effective allocation of macro resources. The authors' research shows that digital finance has significantly improved the vertical specialization of firms. This conclusion provides guides to improve the production efficiency of enterprises and the quality of economic development.

This paper has three main contributions. (1) The relationship between financial development and the vertical specialization of firms is innovatively discussed from the perspective of digital finance, which implies that digital finance can effectively promote the level of vertical specialization of firms. (2) This paper provides new perspectives and ideas to reveal the impact mechanism of digital finance on the real economy by systematically analyzing the mechanism of digital finance on the vertical specialization of firms from the perspectives of transaction costs and financing constraints. (3) The regional differences in the development of digital finance, industry differences in the vertical specialization of firms and differences in the nature of enterprise property rights are all under consideration, which improves the effectiveness and pertinence of digital finance in promoting the vertical specialization of firms.

This study empirically examines the nonlinear effects of mimicking peer firms' cash holdings on shareholder value, with consideration of macroeconomic conditions.

An instrumental variable approach for nonlinear models is estimated for a large sample of US firms over the period 1991–2019. This approach addresses the reflection problem in examining peer effects, whereby it is impossible to separate the individual's effects on the group, or vice versa, if both are simultaneously determined.

The authors find an inverted U-shaped association between shareholder value and mimicking intensity of peer firms' cash holdings. This result suggests that mimicking peer firms' cash holdings is subject to diminishing returns. It is more beneficial at lower levels of mimicking intensity but less so or suboptimal at higher levels. Further evidence indicates that this inverted U-shaped shareholder value-mimicking intensity nexus is asymmetric. Specifically, it is salient for decreases relative to increases in cash holdings and, more importantly, in good relative to bad macroeconomic states. The findings are robust to several concerns and have important implications for liquidity management policies.

The authors provide new empirical evidence of the nonlinear effects of mimicking peer firms' cash holdings on shareholder value, which varies with macroeconomic conditions.

This paper aims to examine how interfirm transactional and relational assets drive firm performance (FP) in digitally integrated supply chains.

The authors combine the Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) and Relational Exchange Theory (RET) frameworks to hypothesize that FP will be a function of Asset Specificity (AS), Digital Technology Usage (DTU) and Collaborative Information Sharing (CIS). In addition, the authors hypothesize that Supply Chain Integration (SCI) will partially mediate the effect of DTU and fully mediate the impact of AS and CIS on FP. A cross-sectional survey of supply chain managers is used to test the hypotheses.

Findings indicate that specific investments in digitally integrated supply chains would increase FP. In addition, SCI fully mediates the relationships between AS and FP and CIS and FP, while SCI partially mediates the influence of DTU on FP.

Managers could strategically engage in the technologies that effectively fit within the firm’s supply chain strategies and seek to develop a pragmatic expertise that enables the effective use of technology in a comprehensive setting.

The study enriches the extant literature by incorporating TCE and RET as contradictory viewpoints on AS and investigating how transactional and relational assets affect FP in digitally integrated supply chains.

This study aims to explore and analyse the credit risk assessment procedure conducted by the Indonesian Islamic banks to address the issue of asymmetric information among their micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) clients. This study also investigates the gaps in credit risk assessment procedures by comparing Islamic banks’ practices and presenting several recommendations to reinforce the credit risk evaluation procedures and eventually promote more inclusion of the MSME segment into the Islamic financial services.

This paper adopts a qualitative method by implementing a multi-case study research strategy. The data were gathered primarily through an interview approach by incorporating purposive uncontrolled quota sampling.

The result of this study implies that the Islamic banks in Indonesia have their own unique approaches and strategies in assessing the credit risk and have several similarities in performing their evaluation procedures for the MSME. Despite seemingly adequate approaches and measures taken by the Islamic banks to eliminate the asymmetric information problem, the study identifies several gaps that occur within the Islamic banks’ methods of credit risk assessment.

Since this study focuses on Indonesia and emphasises the two segments of Islamic banks, which consist of Islamic commercial and rural banks, in performing the MSME credit risk assessment; therefore, the findings of this study were limited around the observed Islamic banks within the MSME segment purview.

By referring to the recommendations as proposed by this paper, four implications could be expected from adopting these respective recommendations, among others: more effective evaluation procedures for the MSME, provision of a clear path and more efficient approach to assess the MSME units, lower financing cost and increase the confidence of Islamic banking industry in disbursing more financing to the MSME sector. This mechanism will potentially improve Islamic financial inclusion for the MSME due to the greater access to financial services; hence, the sector could contribute even more to Indonesia’s growing economy.

By incorporating a multi-case study among Indonesian Islamic banks pertaining to their methods in evaluating MSME customers, this study identifies several gaps affecting the effectiveness of MSME credit risk assessment. Furthermore, this study also presents a proposed framework to address these gaps accordingly by suggesting the salient strategies to minimise the issues of information asymmetry and enhance the MSME credit risk assessment procedure.

The study aims to present a systematic literature review (SLR) to understand the current status of research on social media usage among the bottom of the pyramid (BOP). The purpose of this study is to identify the research gaps in this domain and review future research agendas by using theory, context, characteristics and methods [TCCM] framework.

An SLR, keywords co-occurrence and TCCM analysis were used to analyse and synthesize insights from 44 studies gained from Web of Science and Scopus databases.

The findings suggest that the USA and India are popular contexts for studying BOP. The BOP population uses social media to gain utilitarian, hedonic and social values. Further, social media can help BOP explore “entrepreneurship” opportunities, value co-creation and bring innovations.

This study expands the intellectual boundaries of social media at BOP and suggests multidisciplinary research. Additionally, adopting novel theoretical lenses helped determine social media's impact on BOP.

The authors of this study aim to investigate possible explanations of the prevalence of price clustering in the final offer prices of mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

The authors use final offer price in M&A deals to investigate the price clustering phenomena. The authors used regressions and logistic regressions to examine potential factors that might affect pricing strategy by looking into one-time acquirers and experienced serial acquirers.

Price clustering increases with negotiation uncertainties characterized as competitive bidding, number of bidders, challenged deals and duration. Moreover, the authors find persistent price clustering in experienced serial acquirers that are more experienced and better equipped with handling uncertainties, suggesting a preference of using round numbers regardless of levels of uncertainties. The authors' evidence shows that price clustering results from a combination of Harris' (1991) costly negotiation hypothesis where round prices may be used to lower search costs and psychological bias and preference.

The authors appear to be the first to investigate alternative theories that support M&A offer price clustering behavior, finding that both the costly negotiation and psychological bias and preference theories apply to M&A final price formation. Thus, the authors' major contribution, specific to the M&A process, is a clarification of physical and psychological factors associated with bidding and negotiation behavior. The authors are confident that the authors' study impacts conventional knowledge regarding M&A deal negotiation strategies, including bidding behavior, contract negotiation, financial analysis, management practices and risk management.

This study aims to empirically examine how blockchain, one of the emerging Industry 4.0 technologies, can combat climate change by improving their green innovation performance, particularly under conditions of policy uncertainty.

This study utilizes the difference-in-difference-in-difference (DDD) method to explore the effect of blockchain on enterprises' green innovation performance. The analysis is based on data from Chinese-listed enterprises spanning the period from 2013 to 2021.

First, the adoption of blockchain in enterprises registered in areas designated as low-carbon pilot cities can significantly improve their green innovation performance. Second, the enhancement of green innovation efficiency emerges as the primary driving force behind the adoption of blockchain, thereby leading to improved green innovation performance. Lastly, it is observed that blockchain adoption has a greater positive impact on improving green efficiency in private enterprises compared to state-owned enterprises in China.

For managers, the findings can provide valuable insights to help them better prepare for the challenges and opportunities presented by the era of Industry 4.0. For policymakers, this study offers valuable insights into the interaction between new technologies in Industry 4.0 and the performance of green innovation, thereby aiding in the formulation of effective policies.

This study contributes to bridging the existing gap between the adoption of new technologies, such as blockchain, and their potential impact on climate change. Moreover, this research enriches practitioners' understanding of how new technologies in the era of Industry 4.0 can be applied to address significant challenges like climate change.

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of online reviews on answer adoption in virtual Q&A communities, with an eye toward extending knowledge exchange and community management.

Online reviews contain rich cognitive and emotional information about community members regarding the provided answers. As feedback information on answers, it is crucial to explore how online reviews affect answer adoption. Based on signaling theory, a research model reflecting the influence of online reviews on answer adoption is established and empirically examined by using secondary data with 69,597 Q&A data and user data collected from Zhihu. Meanwhile, the moderating effects of the informational and emotional consistency of reviews and answers are examined.

The negative binomial regression results show that both answer-related signals (informational support and emotional support) and answerers-related signals (answerers’ reputations and expertise) positively impact answer adoption. The informational consistency of reviews and answers negatively moderates the relationships among information support, emotional support and answer adoption but positively moderates the effect of answerers’ expertise on answer adoption. Furthermore, the emotional consistency of reviews and answers positively moderates the effect of information support and answerers’ reputations on answer adoption.

Although previous studies have investigated the impacts of answer content, answer source credibility and personal characteristics of knowledge seekers on answer adoption in virtual Q&A communities, few have examined the impact of online reviews on answer adoption. This study explores the impacts of informational and emotional feedback in online reviews on answer adoption from a signaling theory perspective. The results not only provide unique ideas for community managers to optimize community design and operation but also inspire community users to provide or utilize knowledge, thereby reducing knowledge search costs and improving knowledge exchange efficiency.