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To examine how shareholding affects optimal profits, R&D innovation, NEV market scale and social welfare in two supply chain models with partial and cross ownership patterns.

The gradual retreat of government subsidies has directly weakened the financial support available to the stakeholders of new energy vehicles (NEVs). In this context, upstream and downstream enterprises of NEV are constantly seeking new business models of cooperation to achieve possible win-wins. NEV supply chain shareholding is an emerging new practice for such explorations. However, its performance in the NEV supply chain is seldom investigated. In this paper, we employ a Stackelberg game model to investigate how partial and cross-ownership affect the optimal decisions in a NEV supply chain.

Results showed that: (1) Compared with the unilateral shareholding model, the battery supplier will benefit from cross-ownership in the supply chain, while the NEV manufacturer will not necessarily benefit from it. At the same time, cross-ownership will bring the greatest incentive for battery R&D (2) Supply chain downstream competition will not necessarily lead to the improvement of the total consumption of NEVs or the level of battery design. Pareto improvement can be brought only when one of the manufacturers holds less than a certain equity threshold. In addition, downstream competition will also not necessarily bring more benefits to the battery supplier.

At present, NEV supply chain management has attracted widespread attention from scholars from all walks of life. Previous studies have been carried out that covers topics such as pricing strategies and optimal profits and the role of NEV in the sustainable development of the automotive industry supply chain, or disparate impacts of government subsidies and carbon emission regulation on supply chain members. However, as far as the authors know, compared with the new emerging NEV corporate practice, the shareholding phenomenon between upstream and downstream in the supply chain of NEV has not been studied in the existing studies.

The purpose of the perspective article is to review relevant literature on family business and ethnic fashion and establish links across identity (defined as culture, tradition, heritage and status) and fashion (color, design, pattern and fabric/texture) and internationalization (foreign market entry), and develop a conceptual model using the identity theory and qualitative method.

This is a qualitative study by design. We used a systematic research and ethnographic method for this study. Specifically, the author used the participant observation aspect of ethnography to collect information and images relating to ethnic fashion. Ethnography is a well-established methodology widely used in social sciences research, including fashion.

The study's conceptual model proposes that (1) ethnic fashion mediates the identity-internationalization relationship, (2) knowledge transfer moderates the identity-ethnic fashion relationship and (3) family business size moderates the ethnic fashion-internationalization relationship. It is also revealed that a person's status can be judged by their dress and fashion in under two minutes.

This study is limited to the African continent, though it has 54 countries with a current population of about 1.5 billion people, which is expected to be roughly 2.5 billion by 2050.

Implications of the study for the entrepreneurs and family businesses are that they should realize the opportunities presented by ethnic African fashion and tap into the most crucial key to success—local design, color, fabric and patterns associated with meaning and messages. Cross-cultural collaborations and digital innovations can help the internationalization of African fashion while preserving local heritage and identity. Another implication is that quality and consistency in branding are equally essential to be on par with intentional luxury brands.

The social implication of the study is that culture and fashion are correlated and influence designers' creations, reflecting and conveying identity, status and societal values. Fashion allows people to express their identity, individuality and values. The proper fashion and outfit can boost mood, self-esteem and confidence, resulting in healthy social interaction and mental health. Fashion can also raise social issues (e.g. inclusiveness, diversity and gender by featuring various models and designs) and environmental issues (e.g. sustainable practices local and ethical production).

The paper synthesizes ethnic fashion in the context of family businesses in Africa, highlights specific examples of ethnic fashion of African people with the potential for internationalization and proposes future fashion perspectives for family businesses. It adds value in that it focuses on fashion family businesses in the African continent.