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More enterprises adopt open innovation by breaking technological or organizational boundaries to seek internal and external knowledge when they face a fiercely competitive environment, complex market demands, and increasingly rapid technological change. In this context, a knowledge search strategy is regarded as an effective means of obtaining inside and outside resources and an important way to break the innovation bottleneck. Moreover, information technology (IT) is deemed an important asset for sourcing knowledge, whereas absorptive capacity is seen as an indispensable ability for utilizing novel knowledge. Thus, this paper aims to test the role of knowledge search in open innovation and examine the mediating effect of absorptive capacity and the moderating effect of IT capability.

Using a sample of 1,088 Chinese firms’ data collected by the World Bank in 2012, this paper employs logistic regression to test the hypotheses.

This study finds that local and boundary-spanning search strategies positively influence both product and process innovation, and absorptive capacity has a mediating role in the relationships between knowledge search and product and process innovation. Moreover, IT capability has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between local search and innovation performance; however, IT capability strengthens the relationship between boundary-spanning search and process innovation while weakens that between boundary-spanning search and product innovation.

This study explores the impact of different knowledge search behaviors on different types of innovation and probes the role of absorptive capacity and IT capability in mediating and moderating the above relationships. By drawing on knowledge-based theory and cognitive-developmental theory, this paper provides a novel perspective to explain the mechanism between knowledge search and innovation performance.

Open innovation and information systems have been key topics in the theoretical domain, but little empirical research thoroughly examines how information technology (IT) capability affects open innovation performance. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between IT capability and open innovation performance and to expose the inner mechanism at the firm level.

This paper collected firm-level data in China; 232 usable questionnaires from different firms were collected. Then, the study used a structural equation model by AMOS for hypothesis testing.

The results indicate that both internal IT capability and external IT capability have positive impacts on open innovation performance; potential absorptive capacity and realized absorptive capacity mediate the relationship between external IT capability and open innovation performance. Additionally, realized absorptive capacity plays a mediating role in the relationship between internal IT capability and open innovation performance.

These findings indicate that practitioners should pay attention to the important relationship between absorptive capacity and IT capability and open innovation performance in Chinese businesses.

Existing research has emphasized the influence of IT on open innovation, but empirical studies have not thoroughly focused on the inner mechanisms of the effect of IT capability on open innovation performance. Drawing on firm capability theory, this paper classifies IT capability as internal and external IT capability and absorptive capacity as potential and realized absorptive capacity. Then, this paper confirms the mediating role of absorptive capacity between IT capability and open innovation performance.

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

Discusses the application of win‐win mindsets and strategy in the employment of reference graduate assistants in academic libraries. The strategy covers different stages of the employment including recruitment, training and support, and transition. It focuses on the concept of treating graduate assistants as colleagues and involving them in the whole process. Also compares the differences between the employment of reference graduate assistants who are library school students and those who are non‐library school students, and the differences between graduate assistants in libraries and contingency workers in the business world.

Explores ways of developing the marketing mix for the market in drinking tea, rejecting a number of existing marketing mix models. Adapts methods popular in product design and applies them to the marketing mix of the tea‐drinking market. Uses Suh’s principle of product design, explaining it in detail, then applies this to drinking tea, using a random sampling survey to discover consumer needs, perceptions and attitudes. Reports also on an empirical study of 799 Taiwanese households to find out more about the Oriental tea market. Presents the data analysis, including a comparison of brand loyalty. Indicates that market segmentation and marketing mix should be developed simultaneously and claims that this paper provides a method for doing that.

This study aims to extend the application of the quality category approach in rapid fatigue assessment of complex welded structures containing defects under arbitrary loadings, following the investigation of their core data and fatigue assessment procedures based on fracture mechanics.

The analysis methods and procedures for calculating equivalent sizes of semi-elliptic cracks and initial sizes of through-width cracks at the weld toe were developed based on the life equivalence principle. Different stress concentration solutions, i.e. 2D-M_k and 3D-M_k solutions, and different bending ratios were considered. Then, approximate equations were proposed to calculate the crack size under combined stress. In addition, a procedure for calculating the fatigue life by interpolation was proposed and applied to engineering examples.

The fatigue lives of fillet and butt weld joints obtained with the 3D-M_k solution for large L/B are longer than those obtained with the 2D-M_k solution. The results of the fatigue life of the brake unit bracket show that the average error between the proposed approximation equations and the quality category approach is 1.6%.

The quality category and equivalent size curves of different stress concentration solutions under combined membrane and bending stresses are newly added, which further expands the application of the quality category approach. When the proposed fatigue life calculation methods are employed, the remaining life can be quickly derived in addition to the qualitative conclusion on the safety of the structure. These provide the necessary conditions to perform a rapid fatigue assessment adapted to engineering purposes.

Defines “insider trading” and looks at the effects of insider trading on an economy. Considers the factors which have caused legislation and the rationale behind insider trading. Compares the economic and financial approaches to the problem. Outlines the European, UK and US positions covering legislation, arguments, prohibitions and penalties. Cites important cases in the USA, which have caused changes in the law. Concludes that there is a need for standardization, together with better access to timely information but highlights that the markets require freedom within which to work effectively and accepts that there will always be an element of insider trading in any market.

Few studies have explored the direct influence of social networking websites (SNWs), and to the best of our knowledge, none have examined the indirect influence of SNWs on users and how that indirect influence leads to word‐of‐mouth related behaviors in SNWs. This study employs the theoretical framework of the third‐person effect theory, which is grounded in psychology, to examine the indirect influence of SNWs and how that indirect influence may potentially contribute to marketing research and practice. Davison’s (1983) third‐person effect (TPE) theory proposes that individuals tend to expect mass media to have a greater effect on others than on themselves. After the analysis of survey data, the current research first explores whether a third‐person effect exists in the SNW context and if it does, how it differs from that in traditional media context. Based on theory and numerous empirical findings, the current research also investigates how the thirdperson effect varies with different referent “others”. Finally, based on the theoretical propositions of previous studies, this study links third‐person effect to behavioral consequences related to word‐of‐mouth communication via SNWs. The results support all hypotheses. This work contributes to consumer psychology and word‐of‐mouth communication research, and generates implications for marketers targeting young consumers and/or those interested in stimulating word‐of‐mouth communication in the SNW context. Limitations are also addressed.

This article explores the size‐growth relationship for a panel of large US credit unions, using the panel unit root tests of Im et al. (2003) and Maddala and Wu (1999). The reference point is Gibrat’s Law, or the Law of Proportionate Effect, according to which firm growth rates are independent of firm sizes. The panel unit root tests are applied to the log as sets and log membership series of a sample of 997 surviving credit unions which reported data over the period 1993 to 2002. In each case the panel unit root tests fail to reject the null hypothesis of non‐stationarity in the logarithmic size series for all credit unions. The implication is that credit union sizes follow random walks, producing a tendency for industry concentration to increase in the long term. With many of the largest institutions currently offering portfolios of products and services similar to those of commercial banks and other financial institutions, these implications of the panel unit root test results appear consistent with observed patterns within the sector in recent years.

States that the level of consumer involvement in a product category is a major variable relevant to advertising strategy. Suggests product category is often segmented by the level of consumer involvement; however, consumers are rarely segmented. Points out that different involvement clusters have different responses to advertising effectiveness for the same product. Presents a case study segmenting a market using the consumer involvement degree, exploring the characteristics in order to determine the relationship between advertising effectiveness and the level of consumer involvement. Shows results suggesting that a high degree of consumer involvement directed a high advertising effect and is therefore an important indication for advertising strategy.