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Access to financing is a key success factor for start-ups. High failure rates, long payback periodse and asymmetries lead to conservative pricing and valuation discounts. The authors examine financial marketing and contingent factors, as enablers of a “patent premium” by private equity (PE) investors targeting start-ups in their growth and expansion stages.

Drawing from the contingency, innovation and signaling theories, the authors collect patent records for Italian start-ups in which a higher than 30% stake was acquired by PE investors during the period 2014–2020. The authors apply a generalized linear model with a logit link and robust clustered error to test the key relationships and control for endogeneity with a Heckman two-stage selection model.

Findings indicate start-ups’ access to financing is significantly impacted by marketing constructs adopted in the operation. Innovation alone does not suffice to determine a valuation premium, unless contingent on the promotion of its product, the placement -investors targeted-of the equity, brand equity levers of previous ownership and marketing competence backing the deal.

The authors provide new insights in the marketing-finance interface, highlighting levers that reassure investors and enable monetizing innovation in start-ups that are still privately held. The authors bridge a gap in literature that has mainly focused on venture capital and innovation financing in the open market, as well as a significant gap regarding the marketing design of private equity placements.

This paper aims to examine and compare extant literature on the application of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques in humanitarian operations (HOs) and humanitarian supply chains (HSCs). It identifies the status of existing research in the field and suggests a roadmap for academicians to undertake further research in HOs and HSCs using MCDM techniques.

The paper systematically reviews the research on MCDM applications in HO and HSC domains from 2011 to 2022, as the field gained traction post-2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami phenomena. In the first step, an exhaustive search for journal articles is conducted using 48 keyword searches. To ensure quality, only those articles published in journals featuring in the first quartile of the Scimago Journal Ranking were selected. A total of 103 peer-reviewed articles were selected for the review and then segregated into different categories for analysis.

The paper highlights insufficient high-quality research in HOs that utilizes MCDM methods. It proposes a roadmap for scholars to enhance the research outcomes by advocating adopting mixed methods. The analysis of various studies revealed a notable absence of contextual reference. A contextual mind map specific to HOs has been developed to assist future research endeavors. This resource can guide researchers in determining the appropriate contextual framework for their studies.

This paper will help practitioners understand the research carried out in the field. The aspiring researchers will identify the gap in the extant research and work on future research directions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first literature review on applying MCDM in HOs and HSCs. It summarises the current status and proposes future research directions.

This study aims to explore how the shift from traditional to digital banking transforms the nature of trust between banks and their younger clients (aged 18–35) from the perspective of bank employees.

Qualitative semi-structured interviews with representatives of Ukrainian classical banks and neobanks were conducted. The interviews were analysed using the theoretical approach of institution-based and social network-based trust to identify the key distinctions between the nature of trust in traditional and digital banking.

The employees of the banks reported that digitalization processes have helped to mitigate trust issues; as a result, their banks have not experienced any difficulties in this regard among young people. Furthermore, social networks, particularly social approval, were found to be significant factors for establishing trust in digital banking among young people.

The results of this study could assist bank managers in adapting their strategies for cultivating trust among younger clients and aiding international law regulators and government institutions in preventing unintended circumstances in financial services. These contributions were shaped by the study’s limitations, including its focus on only two concepts of trust building: institution-based and social network-based, as well as its specific Ukrainian context.

This study highlights social approval as a valuable constituent of the trust-building process that influences trust in institutions. Furthermore, while gaining social approval – particularly through digital platforms – can promote trust-building among young people, this “easy way” may have negative societal consequences by endorsing unscrupulous institutions.

The view that dynamic capabilities theory can help explain how lean organizations improve has been put forward by scholars. However, there is still a lack of research on the matching relationship between the application of lean practice and the internal elements of enterprise organization from the perspective of dynamic capabilities. The purpose of this study is to validate the moderating effect of dynamic capabilities on the relationship between lean practices and operational performance.

This study used the method of survey and empirical research to collect sample data from 263 enterprises in China. Through literature review, this study put forward the moderating hypotheses around dynamic capabilities, lean practices and operation performance and used the method of regression analysis to validate these hypotheses.

The results showed that dynamic capabilities have a partially moderating effect on the application of lean practices. Specifically, dynamic capabilities have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between just-in-time, total quality management, total preventive maintenance and operational performance, while dynamic capabilities have no significant moderating effect on the relationship between human resource management and operational performance.

The research conclusion complements and enriches the lean practices literature from the perspective of dynamic capabilities. Existing studies mainly focus on the moderating role of external environmental factors, while there is a lack of empirical research on the role of dynamic capabilities in lean practices literature. The research results will help enterprises further understand the matching relationship between lean practices and dynamic capabilities and then improve the success of lean practices application.

Recently, powerful instruments for biomedical engineering research studies, including disease modeling, drug designing and nano-drug delivering, have been extremely investigated by researchers. Particularly, investigation in various microfluidics techniques and novel biomedical approaches for microfluidic-based substrate have progressed in recent years, and therefore, various cell culture platforms have been manufactured for these types of approaches. These microinstruments, known as tissue chip platforms, mimic in vivo living tissue and exhibit more physiologically similar vitro models of human tissues. Using lab-on-a-chip technologies in vitro cell culturing quickly caused in optimized systems of tissues compared to static culture. These chipsets prepare cell culture media to mimic physiological reactions and behaviors.

The authors used the application of lab chip instruments as a versatile tool for point of health-care (PHC) applications, and the authors applied a current progress in various platforms toward biochip DNA sensors as an alternative to the general bio electrochemical sensors. Basically, optical sensing is related to the intercalation between glass surfaces containing biomolecules with fluorescence and, subsequently, its reflected light that arises from the characteristics of the chemical agents. Recently, various techniques using optical fiber have progressed significantly, and researchers apply highlighted remarks and future perspectives of these kinds of platforms for PHC applications.

The authors assembled several microfluidic chips through cell culture and immune-fluorescent, as well as using microscopy measurement and image analysis for RNA sequencing. By this work, several chip assemblies were fabricated, and the application of the fluidic routing mechanism enables us to provide chip-to-chip communication with a variety of tissue-on-a-chip. By lab-on-a-chip techniques, the authors exhibited that coating the cell membrane via poly-dopamine and collagen was the best cell membrane coating due to the monolayer growth and differentiation of the cell types during the differentiation period. The authors found the artificial membrane, through coating with Collagen-A, has improved the growth of mouse podocytes cells-5 compared with the fibronectin-coated membrane.

The authors could distinguish the differences across the patient cohort when they used a collagen-coated microfluidic chip. For instance, von Willebrand factor, a blood glycoprotein that promotes hemostasis, can be identified and measured through these type-coated microfluidic chips.

The purpose of this study is to explore the antecedents of digital technology adoption by firms, specifically the role of strategic leader social ties such as board networks and executive academic connections in promoting digital transformation. Moreover, the authors also aim to examine the moderating effect of exploratory innovation strategy on the relationship between board networks, academic connections and digital transformation.

This study uses the panel data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2019. Through text analysis of data such as company annual report, media interaction, asset annotation and International Patent Classification, the authors measure degrees of digital transformation from four dimensions: management attention, media discussion, digital input and digital output. Further, this study employs social network analysis and instrumental variable method to examine the causal relationship between strategic leader social ties and digital transformation.

The study finds that an expansive board network can significantly promote the digital transformation process of companies, in which academic connection of senior executives plays a positive synergistic role with board network. Additionally, firms with exploratory innovation strategies are more likely to utilize board networks to accelerate their digital transformation process.

One limitation of this study is the use of Chinese A-share listed companies as the sample, which may limit the generalizability of the findings to other contexts. Additionally, the study focuses only on two types of strategic leader social ties and does not consider other potential antecedents of digital transformation.

This research provides insights for governments to promote digital economy and industrial upgrading. Policymakers can facilitate industrial digital transformation by creating a supportive policy environment that encourages university–industry collaboration. By fostering academic entrepreneurship and cross-border knowledge transfer, governments can create a thriving ecosystem for digital innovation, thereby enhancing industrial competitiveness and economic growth.

This study helps to improve social welfare. By reducing production costs and enhancing customer experience, digital transformation increases economic surplus for both consumers and manufacturers, enabling society as a whole to benefit from the digital dividend. By promoting collaboration across borders and embracing a digital-friendly culture, businesses and governments can achieve long-term success in the digital age and contribute to building more prosperous and sustainable societies.

This research makes several contributions to the literature on digital transformation and leadership. Firstly, this paper empirically examines the role of board network and executive academic connection in promoting the adoption of digital technology, filling the research gap of leadership antecedents of digital transformation. Secondly, the authors put forward a relatively comprehensive measure for digital transformation, which could help to advance the literature on digital transformation and provide a more nuanced perspective on this topic. Finally, the paper enriches the theoretical understanding of board network and executive academic connection from the perspective of social capital theory and organizational learning theory.

This paper aims to explore the effects of director network on open innovation. As an informal institutional arrangement, the director network is an important source for the enterprise to obtain external information, which provide resource basis for open innovation. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as the top of management team could make short-sighted decisions for personal interests; this paper also investigates the moderating role of CEO short-sightedness between director network and open innovation.

This paper takes 4,102 Chinese listed companies from 2007 to 2020 as the research sample. By introducing network centrality and structural hole to measure director network and using data mining to extract key words related to CEO short-sightedness from annual reports, this paper constructs several multiple linear regression models to analyze the impact of director network on open innovation and the moderating role of CEO short-sightedness.

The analysis finds that director network can facilitate corporate open innovation. Enterprises can acquire more external resources in high centrality and structural hole of director network and promote ability for corporate open innovation. The relationship between director network and open innovation is negatively moderated by CEO short-sightedness. When the level of corporate governance and analyst attention is high, the negative effect of CEO short-sightedness on the innovation effect of directors’ networks is suppressed.

This is the first empirical paper to investigate the promotion effect of director network on open innovation as well as the negative moderating role of CEO short-sightedness. The findings bring new perspectives to the open innovation and enlightenments for practical activities from social relationship aspect.

This study aims to focus on the supply chain (SC) cost drivers of healthcare industries in the USA, as SC costs have increased 40% over the last decade. The second-most significant expense, the SC, accounts for 38% of total expenses in a typical hospital, while most other industries can operate within 10% of their operating cost. This makes healthcare centers supply-chain-sensitive organizations with limited facilities for high-quality healthcare services. As the cost drivers of healthcare SC are almost unknown to managers, their jobs become more complex.

Guided by pragmatism and positivism paradigms, a cross-sectional study has been designed using quantitative and deductive approaches. Both primary and secondary data were used. Primary data were collected from health centers across the country, and secondary data were from healthcare-related databases. This study examined the attributes that explain the most significant variation in each contributing factor. With multiple regression analysis for predicting cost and Student's t-tests for the significance of contributing factors, the authors of this study examined different theories, including the market-based view and five-forces, network and transaction cost analysis.

This study revealed that supply, materials and services represent the most significant expenses in primary care. Supply-chain cost breakdown results in four critical factors: facility, inventory, information and transportation.

This study examined the data from primary and secondary care institutions. Tertiary and quaternary care systems were not included. Although tertiary and quaternary care systems represent a small portion of the healthcare system, future research should address the supply chain costs of highly specialized organizations.

This study suggests methods that can help to improve supply chain operations in healthcare organizations worldwide.

This study presents an empirically proven methodology for testing the statistical significance of the primary factors contributing to healthcare supply chain costs. The results of this study may lead to positive policy changes to improve healthcare organizations' efficiency and increase access to high-quality healthcare.

How to successfully drive open innovation (OI) has become an important issue. However, the existing literature on the determinants of OI focuses on organizational and situational factors, while the “human side” of it remains poorly understood. To address such problem, this paper examines the impact of two core qualities of CEOs – CEO power and social capital – on three representative OI modes from a micro-level perspective.

This paper uses the data of 4,213 firm-year observations from Chinese A-share listed companies. A panel logit model is used to test the hypotheses, and the author also uses clustering robust standard errors to ensure the robustness of the model.

A powerful CEO can drive the firm's adoption of technology, organization and market-oriented OI, and different types of social capital have a differential impact on such relationship. Specifically, the CEO's political social capital has a negative moderating effect, while his/her stronger business social capital can enhance the positive relationship between CEO power and various types of OI activities, as well as mitigate the negative effect of political social capital.

This paper echoes the call for more attention to be paid to the microfoundations of OI and provides theoretical implications for research on the convergence of OI and strategic leadership.

In the era of digitalization, digital technology has transformed businesses and created enormous opportunities for organizations worldwide. Unsurprisingly, research on digital transformation has garnered significant interest among academics in recent decades. However, this study aims to recognize the key and holistic antecedents influencing digital transformation in manufacturing firms. This study also investigates the indirect relationships of antecedents with firm performance.

The hypothesis was investigated using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach. The data was collected from 279 employees through a self-administered survey of manufacturing firms.

The results described a significant and positive impact of competitive pressure, leadership role, organization culture, organization mindfulness, government regulation, and IT readiness on digital transformation and firm performance. Furthermore, digital transformation partially mediates the relationship between antecedents and firm performance.

The study finds a holistic perspective of the critical antecedents of digital transformation using the mediation role of digital transformation and moderating effects of firm agility. Additionally, all antecedents have a significant association with Firm Performance.