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This study aims to explore the influence mechanism of digital platform capability on firm performance in the business-to-business (B2B) context. This study draws on the core competence theory and the resource-based view and includes resource identification, resource allocation and intrapreneurship into the research framework.

Data were collected from 167 B2B firms with survey questionnaires in central, eastern and southeastern coastal areas of China. The firms were mainly involved in e-commerce, manufacturing, service industry and internet technology. Participants were mainly middle and senior managers with a comprehensive grasp of their firms’ information.

This study found that digital platform capability has a positive impact on a B2B firm’s performance. Resource identification, resource allocation and intrapreneurship play a chain mediating role between digital platform capability and firm performance. That is, digital platform capability could promote employee intrapreneurship through resource identification and resource allocation, thereby improving firm performance.

Aiming to gain performance, firms should pay attention to the construction of digital platforms, increase venture capital investment and provide more resources to support intrapreneurship.

Based on empirical evidence, to the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to link digital platform capability and firm performance in the B2B context of emerging markets, providing a new perspective to clarify its relationship mechanism.

This study aims to examine how and when digital platform capabilities drive technological innovation from a strategic information perspective, regarding information flow and information quality as mediators and business intelligence analytics as a moderator.

This study engaged corporate executives in surveys and obtained 182 firm data and then tested the hypotheses using linear regression models and the robustness using the structural equation model.

Digital platform capabilities drive corporate technological innovation through access to strategic information, i.e. strategic information mediates between digital platform capabilities and technological innovation. Business intelligence analytics increases the influence of strategic information on technological innovation.

This study underlines the importance for companies to construct digital platform capabilities to access strategic information to achieve technological innovation and the role of business intelligence analytics in processing strategic information.

This study finds a new perspective, strategic information, to explain the mechanisms by which digital platform capabilities drive firms’ technological innovation. In addition, the robustness of the resource-based view in understanding digital platform capabilities is stressed.

How to improve the resilience of service firms in the crisis, such as the COVID-19 epidemic, to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage becomes a growing concern worldwide. Digital platform capability (DPC) provides a series of opportunities and advantages for service firms to shape resilience in the crisis. This study aims to clarify the effect and mechanism of DPC on service firms’ resilience, and provides a new mediator (strategic learning [SL]), as well as two boundary conditions (legal inefficiency [LIE] and legal incompleteness [LIC]).

Questionnaires were used to obtain firm data, and executives answered these key questions. Data from 293 service firms during the COVID-19 period were used for hypothesis testing.

DPC was positively related to the adaptive capacity (AC) and planning capacity (PC) of service firms. SL mediated the positive effect of DPC on the AC and PC of service firms. The positive effect between DPC and SL was weakened when LIE and LIC were high.

This study suggests that it is a very desirable measure to improve DPC to gain organizational resilience (OR) in the crisis. In addition, a SL process in the crisis is crucial, because service firms need to absorb key strategic information from digital platforms to cope with uncertainty. The services firms need to realize that the benefits of DPC will be weakened in the dysfunctional institutional environment of LIE and LIC.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to link the DPC with the resilience of service firms, and provides a new explanation mechanism and some boundary conditions for this important relationship. Furthermore, this study takes a step forward, because these efforts respond to the widespread call of the literature on digitalization and OR, and provide new insights for understanding digital resilience.

This study aims to examine how and when leader bottom-line mentality (BLM) affects employee innovation (EI) in the context of Chinese organisations in which psychological contract breach (PCB) is a mediator and moral identity (MI) is a moderator.

The authors distributed the questionnaires to technology and culture firms in 2 waves and obtained a sample of 308 employees in 56 teams. The authors used the hierarchical linear model (HLM) and bootstrap method for the hypothesis testing.

The authors conclude that leader BLM negatively influences EI. Specifically, leader BLM leads mainly to low EI by increasing PCB amongst employees. Moreover, MI plays a moderating role in the above mechanism, i.e. the higher the MI degree of employees, the stronger the mediating role of PCB and the stronger the negative impact of leader BLM.

This study argues that BLM is necessary for firm development, but paying too much attention to BLM may achieve the opposite effect. Reducing BLM or buffering the negative impact of BLM through various measures (e.g. human resource management) is appropriate for managers.

The authors discover a new mechanism and boundary condition, i.e. leader BLM has a negative impact on EI through PCB and MI strengthens the effect of leader BLM.

This study aims to explore whether digital platform capabilities (integration and reconstruction) affect technological innovation through knowledge bases in the dimensions of breadth and depth and the moderating role of organisational routines updating.

Hierarchical regression, mediation effect test macro and bootstrap were conducted to empirically analyse two waves of longitudinal survey data from 179 Chinese technology firms.

Results confirmed that knowledge bases (breadth and depth) mediated the effect of digital platform capabilities (integration and reconstruction) on technological innovation and that updating of organisational routines moderated the relationship between knowledge bases and technological innovation.

These findings offer guidance to firms that aim to achieve technological innovation and advantages, highlighting the importance of digital platform capabilities, knowledge bases and organisational routines updating.

Advancing from existing digital strategies and firm innovation literature, the authors provide a new perspective (knowledge bases) to respond to the information technology (IT) paradox and understand the role of digital platform capabilities in improving technological innovation.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

A study from China of workers in technology and cultural firms has shown bottom-line mentality (BLM) has a negative impact on employee innovation. This happens because it increases psychological contract breach (PCB) between management and employees.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

This paper aims to offeri novel nano-additives polymer microgels to precisely improve the lubrication properties of titanium alloy under different temperatures.

The surfactant-free emulsion polymerization method was used to prepare Poly(N-isoprolylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) microgels. A ball-on-disk tribometer was applied to investigated the temperature-sensitive lubrication behavior of PNIPAM microgels.

The results show that the as-prepared microgels are ball-like nanoparticles with the size of 50–900 nm. In addition, potassium persulfate as initiator, complete mixing technic and high sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) concentration contribute to the formation of microgels with small size. The tribosystem shows a lower friction coefficient with the lubrication of PNIPAM microgels as aqueous solution additives when the temperature exceeding the critical temperature.

This work reports the temperature-sensitive lubrication of PNIPAM microgels. The critical temperature of PNIPAM microgels could be regulated by the addition of SDS in the solutions. This offers an effective and facile strategy for regulation of the critical temperature of smart microgels, which is helpful for the smart lubrication in the future.

This paper aims to investigate how ball milling (BM) and load influence transfer film on counterbody and the correlation between transfer film and tribological properties of copper-based composites.

The copper-based mixed powders preprocessed by BM for different times were used to manufacture sintered materials. Specimens were tested by a custom pin-on-flat linear reciprocating tribometer and characterized prior and after tests by optical microscope, scanning electron microscope and energy-dispersive spectroscopy. Image J® and Taylor-hobson-6 surface roughness meter were used to quantify the coverage and thickness of the transfer film.

Main results show that an appropriate amount of BM time and applied load can contribute to the formation of the transfer film on counterbody and effectively improve the tribological properties of the copper-based material. The transfer film coverage is linearly related to the friction coefficient, thickness of transfer film and wear volume. As the transfer film coverage increases, the coefficient of friction decreases. As the thickness of the transfer film increases, the amount of wear increases.

This work intends to control and optimize the formation of transfer film, thereby helping improve the tribological properties of materials and providing a reference to guide the preparation of Cu-based composites with excellent tribological properties.