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Firms are driven to ride on the digital wave in today’s open innovation ecosystem. This study aims to explore the effect of digital transformation (DT) on knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) firms’ innovation ambidexterity, namely, radical versus incremental innovation, respectively. Meanwhile, the authors evaluated the moderating role of the complexity of R&D collaboration portfolio (i.e. organizational diversity and geographic diversity) in the above relationships.

Using a panel data set of 171 Chinese listed firms in the information and communications technology services industry from 2010 to 2018, the proposed hypotheses were empirically attested.

It is found that DT has a positive relationship with radical innovation and an inverted U-shaped relationship with incremental innovation. In terms of the R&D collaboration portfolio, organizational diversity positively moderates the relationships between DT and innovation ambidexterity, respectively. The geographic diversity weakens the inverted U-shaped effect of DT on incremental innovation; however, its moderating role in the link between DT and radical innovation is not empirically verified.

Extant scholars mainly addressed the interplay between KIBS firms and their manufacturing clients, while this study reveals the different consequences of DT on KIBS firms’ innovation ambidexterity to highlight the role of KIBS firms is an independent and essential innovator in a knowledge-driven economy. Notably, the findings contribute to knowledge management (KM) and R&D literature by confirming the diversity of the R&D collaboration portfolio is a critical KM strategy for KIBS firms to develop and promote external knowledge resources.

The authors examined how the identification mechanism of the innovation performance of knowledge employees is affected by empowering leadership by influencing the organizational identification and the moderating effect of leaders on the role expectation of knowledge employees as an essential innovation subject.

The authors employed a mixed-method research approach. The authors collected data from 378 knowledge employees and managers in 20 companies in China's Yangtze River Delta cities. The authors analyzed data using multiple regression analysis forecasting methods.

The authors found that there was an inverted U-shaped relationship between empowering leadership and the innovation performance of knowledge employees; organizational identity played a partial mediating role between empowering leadership and the innovation performance of knowledge employees; role expectation of leaders on the innovation behavior of employees regulated the relationship between the organizational identity and innovation performance of knowledge employees.

This study extends the literature on empowering leadership and innovation performance. This study empirically examines the mediating effect of organizational identity between empowering leadership and innovation performance. In addition, this study empirically examines how empowered leaders' expected innovation level moderates the association between organizational identity and innovation performance.

This study aims to investigate the association of FinTech innovation (FinTechINN) and firm performance (FP) by considering the role of knowledge assets (KA) as a causal mechanism underlying the FinTechINN – FP association.

In this study, the authors consider panel data of 1,049 Chinese A-listed firm and construct a structural model for corporate FinTech innovation, knowledge assets and firm performance while considering endogeneity issues in analyses over the period of 2014–2022. The modified value added intellectual capital (VAIC) and research and development (R&D) expenses are used as a proxy measure for knowledge assets, considering governance and corporate performance measures.

According to the findings of this study FinTech innovation (FinTechINN) has a positive significant effect on firm performance. Particularly; the findings disclose that FinTech innovations has a link with knowledge assets, FinTech innovations indirectly affects firm performance, and the association between FinTech innovation and firm performance is partially mediated by knowledge assets (MVAIC and R&D expenses).

Rooted in the dynamic capability and resource-based view, this study pioneers an empirical exploration of the association of FinTech innovation with firm performance. Moreover, it introduces the novel dimension of knowledge assets (on firm-level), acting as a mediating factor with in this relationship.

The education services sector faces ever-changing global market dynamics with creative disruptions. Building knowledge brands can push the higher education sector beyond its geographical boundaries into the global arena. This study aims to identify key constructs, their theoretical background and dimensions that aid in building a global knowledge brand. The authors' research focuses on adapting and validating scales for global knowledge and education services brands from well-established academic literature.

The authors have adopted a mixed methodology approach and a systematic literature review. Authors interviewed 18 subject matter experts as part of content and face validity to arrive at select constructs, dimensions and items. Quantitative methods with random sampling were adopted as the primary methodology. Initially, the survey was administered to 390 students to test preliminary results. The survey was also administered to 5,112 students at a later part of this study. Valid responses stood at 3,244 with a 63% response rate. Further, the authors conducted confirmatory factor analysis, exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test the reliability and validity of scales. This study analyzed composite reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity to finalize items for scales. The authors also validated the hypotheses based on the discriminant validity assessment scores.

Authors' key research findings are that academic stimulus, campus infrastructure and student intent play a significant role in campus culture and events design and experience at campus. Authors were able to bring out 16 key constructs and 55 critical dimensions vital to global education services brand building. This study also adapted and validated 99 items that meet construct validity and composite reliability criteria. This study also highlights that constructs such as student intent, academic stimulus, campus infrastructure scalability, selection mechanism, pedagogical content knowledge, brand identity, events experience and campus culture play a vital role in global brand recognition.

The authors' work is fairly generalizable to education services and the higher education sector. However, this study must be extrapolated and empirically validated in other industry sectors. The research implications of this study are that it aided the authors in building theoretical background for student brand loyalty theory, student expectation theory and study loyalty theory. This study adds to the body of knowledge by contributing to theoretical concepts on students, knowledge culture, events, infrastructure and branding. Researchers can adopt the scales proposed in this study to build research models in higher education branding. This study acts as a catalyst for building theories in education services areas. Researchers can delve deep into proposed research aspects of campus infrastructure, knowledge infrastructure, campus knowledge culture, events design and events experience.

This study aids educators and brand managers to develop global education services and optimize their effort and budget. Administrators in the education services sector must focus on practical aspects of student perception, campus infrastructure, culture and events experience. Practically administrators can reorient their efforts based on this study to achieve global brand recognition.

This study highlights that students are not customers but are co-creators of value in the education sector. This study provides scales and dimensions needed to build co-creation frameworks and models.

Most research in higher education branding has not covered wider aspects of global brand building. Existing theories proposed in higher education and education services articles cover only narrower aspects of campus infrastructure, culture, events design and branding. This study presents a comprehensive list of critical factors that play a vital role in global knowledge brand building. This study highlights the constructs and scales integral to building a global education services brand.

New product development (NPD) is necessary for business sustenance and customer satisfaction. Six Sigma and Design for Lean Six Sigma (DLSS) efficiently employ the repetitive stages for NPD, leading to quality performance and profitability. This study aims to map the quality performance through NPD attributes through the Lean methodology.

The data on NPD were collected from 267 respondents from manufacturing companies to map the relationship between Six Sigma and DLSS for NPD. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to confirm model fit, while structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the empirical data for framework testing. The study included nine variables and fourteen hypotheses identified from the literature.

The statistical results of this study show that NPD attributes such as innovation, marketing, organization, customer, product and technology positively influence the Lean Six Sigma structured improvement process (LSSSIP) and DLSS. Moreover, integrating these attributes in Lean planning enhance quality performance. This empirical investigation's findings indicate that ten of the 14 hypotheses were supported, giving the study a strong foundation.

The data collection was limited to northern India; therefore, the results may not be generalizable to other areas of the world.

NPD involves handling technical issues and factors such as cost, operational bottlenecks, economic changes, competitors' strategy and company policy. This study helps understand the various NPD parameters and their relationship to Lean, which enables an effective NPD implementation strategy.

The current philosophy of NPD calls for a concurrent engineering approach; therefore, the entire organization must be part of this process. This study uses the holistic framework by optimizing NPD with Lean Six Sigma (LSS) principles. The study is unique in that, to date, research does not integrate NPD attributes with the objectives of LSS to develop an efficient NPD implementation strategy.

The study explores the potential barriers to data science (DS) implementation in organizations and identifies the key barriers. The identified barriers were explored for their interconnectedness and characteristics. This study aims to help organizations formulate apt DS strategies by providing a close-to-reality DS implementation framework of barriers, in conjunction with extant literature and practitioners' viewpoints.

The authors synthesized 100 distinct barriers through systematic literature review (SLR) under the individual, organizational and governmental taxonomies. In discussions with 48 industry experts through semi-structured interviews, 14 key barriers were identified. The selected barriers were explored for their pair-wise relationships using interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and fuzzy Matriced’ Impacts Croise's Multiplication Appliquée a UN Classement (MICMAC) analyses in formulating the hierarchical framework.

The lack of awareness and data-related challenges are identified as the most prominent barriers, followed by non-alignment with organizational strategy, lack of competency with vendors and premature governmental arrangements, and classified as independent variables. The non-commitment of top-management team (TMT), significant investment costs, lack of swiftness in change management and a low tolerance for complexity and initial failures are recognized as the linkage variables. Employee reluctance, mid-level managerial resistance, a dearth of adequate skills and knowledge and working in silos depend on the rest of the identified barriers. The perceived threat to society is classified as the autonomous variable.

The study augments theoretical understanding from the literature with the practical viewpoints of industry experts in enhancing the knowledge of the DS ecosystem. The research offers organizations a generic framework to combat hindrances to DS initiatives strategically.

The purpose of this study is to get an understanding regarding the clusters of middle management employees on the basis of their knowledge sharing behaviour. Designing knowledge sharing behaviors with a distinct focus for a specified group of employees can be an effective and productive one. As it is often argued that the cluster of employees labeled as “middle management” is the key player for knowledge sharing behaviors – a subject of this study that intends to contribute to management strategy to enhance organizational effectiveness and subsequently to its knowledge sharing phenomona.

Cluster analysis was adopted as key tool as a part of quantitative method to accumulate the data from 597 employees who are working within the middle management of service sector located in the union territory of India named Jammu and Kashmir.

Three distinct segments namely – “knowledge sharing adepts (KSA),” “knowledge sharing scrupulous (KSC)” and “knowledge sharing servitudes (KSE)” as the prime domains of knowledge sharing behavior are identified.

To draw a narrow focus, the study was limited to the service sector of a union territory in India, hence the findings may not be generalized. Furthermore, as knowledge sharing behavior of individuals is always evolved out of social and historical practices, findings of this cross-sectional study should ideally be needed to be updated time to time through further research.

Cluster dynamicism of knowledge sharing behavior based on the differentiated and specified group of employee functions distinctly which in turn increases the organizational productivity with a particular focus on the mid-management of the service sector – a key managerial implication of this study.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research paper is the first of its kind in Jammu and Kashmir adding value to the international literature in the area of knowledge sharing behaviors of service sector.

The purpose of this study is to investigate artificial intelligence (AI) as enabler of future library services, with consideration to how prepared are librarians in African university libraries.

This study applied the interpretive content/document analysis of literature harvested from different databases of Scopus and Web of Science. AI could be used to perform daily routines in circulation, serial, reference and selective dissemination of information among others. It could also be applied to the provision of innovative services of recognition of library activities such as answering research quarries, cataloguing and classification of library materials and management of library system software of different databases within the library systems.

It could be deduced from the study that AI would continue to serve as a panacea to future library services irrespective of its geographical context. Due to the evolving nature of knowledge growth, AI having its roots in the field of engineering has been found useful to support future library services. The support accrued from library service delivery in the library profession has made librarians continue to interact with other intelligent machines that can demonstrate human behaviour even though they are not real human beings. The behaviour of machines and AI where human beings play a significant role has brought many renovations in the management of complex tasks of processing, communication, knowledge representation, decision making and suggestions, on potentials of diverse work operations.

The understanding that the present paper portrays in the context of future library services is that there is no way the AI could function without a human interaction perspective when drawing an analogy from computer science, information science and information systems fields of study.

The interest of users across their background would be strengthen if AI advances transformed the handling complex tasks of processing, communication, knowledge representation, decision-making and giving suggestions, among other things. The possibilities of diverse work operations from empirical evidence of studies consulted in recent times gave the authors the impetus to consider AI as the enabler of future library services.

The increasing demands from library patrons have prompted librarians to adapt their methods of delivering services. These emerging technologies have also brought about shifts in approaches to teaching and learning. Consequently, the recent surge in digital technology-driven service innovations has ushered in a fresh paradigm for education and research. In response to these changes, librarians are actively seeking novel and innovative technologies to enhance user experiences within their libraries. They serve as catalysts for introducing modern and advanced technologies, consistently adapting to contemporary tools that enhance their offerings.

Despite its potential, warehouse managers still struggle to successfully assimilate autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) in their operations. This paper means to identify the moderating factors of AMR assimilation for production warehouses that influence the digital transformation of their intralogistics via AMRs.

Drawing on innovation of assimilation theory (IAT), this study followed an explorative approach using the principles of the case study method in business research. The cases comprised of four AMR end users and six AMR service providers. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews.

Four clusters of moderators that affect each stage of AMR assimilation were identified. These clusters include organizational attributes of end users (i.e. production warehouses), service attributes of service providers, technology attributes of AMRs and relational attributes between the AMR service providers and the AMR end users.

The authors extend the IAT framework by identifying various moderating factors between different stages of the AMR assimilation process. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to introduce the perspective of AMR end users in conjunction with AMR service providers to the “Industry 4.0” technology assimilation literature. The study propositions regarding these factors guide future intralogistics and AMR research.

The research objective is rooted in the principle of providing new insights and a collective perspective regarded as Supply Chain Quality Management 4.0 (SCQM4.0), an integration of all three concepts – Industrie 4.0, quality management and supply chain management.

A thorough review of historical developments and existing integration trends among Industrie 4.0, quality and supply chain approaches along with future research directions outlined in the main literature, was conducted. This work establishes a knowledge base on research topics, issues of integration and synergies with a concentration on the potential for deeper integration with supply chain operations.

This article not only introduced the term SCQM4.0 and proposed a definition for it, but also contributed a novel conceptual SCQM4.0 framework and evolutionary perspective through the SCQM4.0 maturation model. Stemming from the gaps, opportunities and benefits identified in the literature, the conceptual SCQM4.0 framework builds on the high potential of the SCQM4.0 constructs to achieve successful governance and implementation. Under the SCQM4.0 maturity framework, it provides a clear evolutionary path underpinned by the SCQM4.0 constructs.

In the effort toward a successful SCQM4.0 implementation, the proposed SCQM4.0 maturity frameworks will be a “road map” for businesses to develop fully and actively in supply chain operations, bringing quality products and services for the company. Industry practitioners are encouraged to perform gap analysis and direct the implementation of the strategy to establish an excellent SCQM4.0.

This is one of the pioneering studies integrating all three concepts (Industrie 4.0, quality management and supply chain management), connecting the link and discovering more synergies to support the future development of more holistic management models. SCQM4.0 is expected to expand on the strengths, synergies and established relationships between technologies 4.0, quality and supply chain, contributing toward a pioneering and quality supply chain.