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Free trial is an effective strategy to gaining users’ data so as to strengthen and optimize product design. The purpose of this paper is to understand the IT companies' dynamic decision-making behavior in the free trial of IT products and services context based on a three-stage theoretical framework and users' decision-making behavior in the respective stage.

A three-stage methodology is proposed to clarify relevant decision problems and actions in each stage from IT companies' and users' perspectives, respectively. It then investigates relating variables on IT companies' decision-making based on extant research and users' decision-making.

In this study, the authors argue that the IT companies have to make the offering, implementation and retention decision in different stage during the whole free trial process. Each decision is determined by several variables from their own and users, namely the offering decision is determined by product characteristics, network effects, product life cycle and WOM (word of mouth); the implementation decision is determined by the quality of products and services, trial type, incentive measures on user's usage and communication strategy; and the retention decision is determined by the product and price strategy.

The results are practical and can be used by IT companies as a decision basis or reference to make reliable decisions so that IT companies can take target measures to ensure the effectiveness of their free trial strategy so as to meet their users' needs based on products designed by data driven. Thus, the ultimate goal of supply chain management is achieved.

In this study, the decision-making process in the free trial of IT products and services context is investigated as a whole for the first time. From the IT companies' perspective, the process includes offering, implementation and retention decision stages, which are continuous and inseparable. The variables that determine IT companies' decision-making are identified based on users' decision and action. Hence, it represents a brand-new whole process perception to clearly understand the dynamic of the IT companies' decision-making. Considering users' decision and action, the final decisions of the IT companies will be more practical in respect of motivating, retaining and upgrading users.

Dominant quality standards are present in all industries. Implicit in their use is the assumption that once adopted, there is little or no reason to replace them. However, there is evidence that, under certain circumstances, such standards do get replaced. The reasons for this action are not well-understood, either as they pertain to the displacement decision or to the selection and adoption of the alternative standard. The purpose of this study is to identify and explore these two issues (displacement and replacement) by drawing on data from the American healthcare system. This study is viewed through the theoretical lens of legitimacy theory. In addition, the process is viewed from a temporal perspective. The resulting findings are used to better understand how this displacement process takes place and to identify directions for interesting and meaningful future research.

This is an explanatory study that draws on data gathered from quality managers in 89 hospitals that had adopted a new healthcare quality standard (of these, some fifty percent had displaced the dominant quality standard – the Joint Commission – with a different standard – DNV Healthcare.

The combined literature review and case study data provide insights into the displacement process. This is a process that evolves over time. Initially, the process is driven by the need to meet customer demands. However, over time, as the organizations try to integrate the guidelines contained within the standards into the organization, gaps in the quality standard emerge. It is these gaps that motivate the need to displace standards. The legitimacy perspective is highly effective at explaining this displacement process. In addition, the study uncovers some critical issues, namely the important role played by the individual auditors in the certification process and the importance of fit between the standard and the context in which it is deployed.

The data for the propositions in this case study were derived from interviews and survey data from 89 healthcare organizations. It would be interesting to examine similar relationships with other quality standards and industries.

Our findings provide new insights related to motivations to decouple from a dominant quality standard. Results provide a cautionary tale for standards that hold a dominant market share such that perceived legitimacy of such standards is not as stable as originally thought.

This study illuminates the fragile nature of the stability of dominant standards and emphasizes the linkages between legitimacy concerns and divestiture of such standards.

The purpose of this research paper is to provide corporate real estate executives with a measurement tool for pinpointing and enhancing the contribution of corporate real estate to corporate strategy.

A measurement tool is designed by adopting a theoretical framework in which seven added values of real estate are aligned with nine corporate strategic driving forces. The practical applicability of this tool is validated by assessing the contribution of corporate real estate to corporate strategy at 14 Dutch‐based global corporations.

Many corporations still lack sufficient insight into the impact of corporate real estate decisions on corporate performance. Therefore, it is difficult for senior management and other stakeholders to grasp the actual contribution of corporate real estate.

Future research may be conducted to investigate the exhaustiveness of the listed real estate issues. Moreover, the linkage between the added values and the strategic driving forces could be validated further in practice.

The measurement tool supports corporate real estate executives in aligning corporate real estate with corporate strategy. Thereby it contributes to the further recognition of the importance of real estate in a corporate setting.

Prior papers on the contribution of corporate real estate to corporate strategy have primarily been focused on either pinpointing various driving forces or linking specific property decisions to corporate strategy. This paper, however, unveils the linkage between fundamental drivers of corporate real estate and corporate strategy in a comprehensive management tool for portfolio analysis and strategy formulation.

With the emergence of the basis of intellectual capital, competitive advantage was considered as the focus of competitive strategies, and the knowledge resulting from this approach became the basis for the development and strategic directions of companies in various fields of the company such as finance and accounting. The purpose of this study is sustainable intellectual capital reporting framework and evaluation of key examples in the context of capital market companies.

The methodology of this study was exploratory from the point of view of the developmental result and based on the type of objective and qualitative and quantitative basis was used to collect the data. The statistical population in the qualitative part was university experts and in the quantitative part financial managers of capital market companies. Data collection tools were interviews in the qualitative part and fuzzy scales and language comparison checklists in the quantitative part. Therefore, first through three stages of coding, the dimensions of the model were identified, and based on the fuzzy Delphi analysis, the reliability level was determined through the average between the first round and the second round of Delphi. Finally, through the default tests, the appropriate fuzzy model was first determined, and then hierarchical fuzzy analysis based on TODIM's approach was used to determine the most favorable axis of sustainable intellectual capital reporting.

The results in the qualitative part indicate the existence of 3 categories and 6 components and 39 conceptual themes in the form of a six-dimensional model. In the quantitative part, the results showed that by confirming the dimensions identified through fuzzy Delphi analysis, the most desirable axis of intellectual capital reporting is the component of technological capital reporting, which can play a more effective role in sustainable reporting.

This study, relying on the importance of the consequences of sustainable intellectual capital reporting, tries to evaluate the consequences of this field of financial reporting due to the lack of a coherent theoretical framework about capital market companies. In addition, the framework presented in this study promotes integrated thinking for firms to it would provide some level of incentive to those charged with governance concerning the voluntary compliance with the sustainable intellectual capital reporting framework.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a digital research framework that can be applied to many of the areas that encompass the discipline of information management.

This communication proposes a new “Triple A” framework that allows the researcher to progress digital ideas by asking a series of staged questions. This is a progressive model consisting of three stages of acquaintance, adaption and application bounded by three major influencing issues of culture, communication and context. The Triple A framework is aimed to be flexible to apply to most styles of research yet robust enough to offer useful insights.

The model devised will assist (information management) researchers with choices of research approaches. It may be that early career researchers or those undertaking a postgraduate research will find this framework especially helpful to clarify thoughts and direction. The model aims to be useful and, whilst no doubt will be built on in future research, it is offered as foundation, an initial starting point, as those who work and study in information management fields endeavor to make new choices in our digitally managed information world.

The originality and value of this work is the proposition of a new model that will allow researchers to impose structure on ideas and encourage the viewing of work from a multi-disciplinary perspective within the growing and evolving digital areas.

Engages with the call for more case study research and provides an example of a methodology informed by a Habermasian approach. Seeks to clarify the methodology and the methods adopted and provides an example of “middle range” thinking (Laughlin, 1995). Extends the insights provided by Laughlin (1987) in his argument for the adoption of critical theory and can be seen as entering into a discourse with this earlier work. Located in the context of an ongoing programme of research in the UK public sector, seeks to provide an exemplar of the application of a Habermasian discourse‐based approach, as well as providing an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the approach in practice. In the spirit of “middle range” thinking appears to use the frameworks provided as a foundation from which to commence the research process, yet use the experiences gained in undertaking the research as a way to develop the frameworks themselves.

Microfoundations have become an effective approach for capability scholars to explore the heterogeneity of organizational results. Since the early pioneering work of scholars such as Felin and Foss, the microfoundations of strategic organization had not been extensively studied until 2010. The theoretical and empirical literature associated with the microfoundations of dynamic capabilities has developed rapidly. However, the diversity and fragmentation of micro-elements lead to a lack of a relatively consistent understanding of microfoundations, the study purpose is to aggregate the associated scattered terminology into a cohesive discussion.

A systematic literature review was conducted on research papers published between 2000 and 2022 using a hybrid methodology that included bibliometric and content analysis.

The authors suggest that this line of research can be divided into three stages. The study further develop a framework delineating the main components and mechanism involved in the microfoundations of dynamic capabilities, which in turn help us distill research gaps and opportunities for future work.

The authors construct a framework that can serve as a coherent research platform for further knowledge development. In the framework, the authors highlight that the research of group constructs, culture and leadership, data-driven topics are valuable for our understanding of the microfoundations of dynamics capabilities.

Risk factors related delay hinder the schedule performance of most construction projects in the world. It is a critical challenge to realize the advantages of prefabricated construction projects (PCPs) under the negative effect of schedule delay. This paper aims to propose an exhaustive list of risk factors impeding the progress of PCPs and evaluate the collected risk factors based on the cause–effect relations. The ultimate goal is to improve the understanding of the complex relations among various risk factors related delay in PCPs, and also offer managers a reference on aspect of schedule risk management.

This paper proposes a hybrid method of GT–DEMATEL–ISM, that is combing grounded theory, DEMATEL (decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory) and ISM (Interpretative Structural Modeling), to collect, evaluate and structure risk factors related delay for PCPs. The research procedure of this methodology is divided into three stages systematically involving qualitative and quantitative analysis. In the first stage, GT is utilized to implement qualitative analysis to collect the risk factors leading to schedule delay in PCPs. While, the quantitative analysis is to analyze and evaluate the collected risk factors based on the cause–effect relations in the next two stages evaluation by the DEMATEL focuses on quantifying the priority and intensity of the relations between factors. Additionally, ISM is employed to construct the hierarchical structure and graphically represent the pairwise relations between factors.

The outcome of qualitative investigation by grounded theory proposes a theoretical framework of risk factors related delay for PCPs. The framework contains three levels of category, namely, core category, main category and initial category and provides a list of risk factors related delay. Following this finding, evaluation results by the DEMATEL classify factors into cause and effect groups and determine 11 critical delay risk factors. Meanwhile, the findings show that risks referring to organizational management issue foremost impact the progress of PCPs. Furthermore, a systemic multilevel hierarchical structure model is visually constructed by ISM to present the pairwise linkages of critical factors. The model provides the risk transmission chains to map the spread path of delay impact in the system.

The contribution of the study involves twofold issues. Methodologically, this research proposes a hybrid method GT–DEMATEL–ISM used to identify and analyze factors for a complex system. It is also applicable to other fields facing similar problems that require collecting, evaluating and structuring certain elements as a whole in a comprehensive perspective. The theoretical contribution is to fill the relevant research gap of the existing body of knowledge. To the best knowledge of the authors, this paper is the first attempt to integrate qualitative and quantitative research for risk analysis related delay and take the insight into the whole process of PCPs covering off-site manufacture and on-site construction. Furthermore, the analysis of findings provided both a micro view focusing on individual risk factor and a managerial view from a systematic level. The findings also contribute the effective information to improve the risk management related schedule delay in PCPs.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for performance evaluation of channel partners in distribution relationships and develop a scale to measure the proposed dimensions of performance.

The proposed framework is built on the theoretical foundations of salesforce control systems and organizational performance. The authors developed the measurement scale by the three-stage protocol and established the scale’s reliability, factor structure and validity through the data collected from 252 firm-channel partner dyads across automobile firms in India.

The proposed framework highlights three distinct dimensions of channel partners’ performance, i.e. output performance, the financial/other objective results; activity performance, the activities, behavior and process-compliance levels; and capability performance, the resources and capabilities of channel partners. An 18-item measurement scale is developed to measure the three proposed dimensions of channel partners’ performance.

The proposed framework conceptualizes the three key dimensions of channel partners’ performance that can assist firms in exercising a focussed approach to performance management in distribution channel relationships and other inter-firm contexts. This study contributes to the legitimacy and further development of research in the area.

The measurement scale provides valid and reliable items for a rigorous performance analyses of channel partners, both at the individual level as well as at the level of the distribution channel as a whole. These performance analyses have multiple applications, right from managing the day-to-day channel activities to steering the channel strategy.

The paper presents a multidimensional conceptual framework for performance evaluation of channel partners and provides a suitable instrument for operationalizing future empirical research in the area.

Because of the complexity of technological innovation and the dynamics of the technological environment, it is impossible for a single firm to have all knowledge needed for technological innovation, making it essential for firms to conduct cross-border knowledge search and integration. However, it is very difficult for firms to acquire and assimilate cross-border knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to explore how an open innovation platform (OIP) helps firms to effectively search and integrate cross-border knowledge, and to understand the key roles that OIP plays during the cross-border knowledge search and integration processes.

This paper takes the case analysis method, which provides a comprehensively understanding on the complex process of cross-border knowledge search and integration as well as the internal mechanism. Drawing on the research paradigm of Eisenhardt (1989), Bakker and Akkerman (2014), this paper analyzes and verifies the mechanism of OIP cross-border knowledge search and integration based on extensive interviews.

First, this paper analyzes the process of cross-border knowledge search and integration through Haier open partnership ecosystem (HOPE), which is theoretically divided into three stages, including motivation formation, cross-border knowledge search and integration. These three stages have been further decomposed into the following seven steps: demands discovery, problems definition, problems decomposition, resource search, resource evaluation, technology redevelopment and test. In addition, this study investigates the manifestation of interrelationships among these stages and steps, depicting the pathways through which HOPE facilitates the firm’s cross-border knowledge search and integration. The conclusions indicate that OIP timely discovers the consumer demands during the motivation formation stage, effectively decomposes problems and find related technology resources during the search stage and improves the efficacy of integration stage.

This study reveals the mechanism of OIP cross-border knowledge search and integration and draws some valuable conclusions, which contribute to the literature on cross-border knowledge search, enrich the research on problem-solving and also propose a new perspective to study the roles of OIP on innovation. However, there are still some limitations. First, this study is built on a single platform (HOPE), further studies may focus on more platforms to ensure the conclusions of this paper. Second, this study conducts data analysis using a simple encoding analysis, so it is possible that some critical information is emitted while collating and analyzing data. Meanwhile, for the research methods, qualitative and quantitative methods can be combined to analyze related issues, then the correlation and corresponding mechanism can be incorporated into the same framework to further verify the conclusions and generalize the results.

This paper theoretically analyzes how and why HOPE helps firms search and integrate cross-border knowledge. It provides not only a reference for OIP but also a proven and effective way for companies’ acquiring and integrating cross-border knowledge. Then it will further improve firms’ innovative abilities, especially disruptive innovation abilities.

Technological innovation, especially disruptive innovation is not only a driving force of firms’ sustainable development but also a vital driver of national development. This paper clarified that OIP can help firms conduct successful disruptive innovation through cross-border knowledge search and integration, which will further increase national innovative competence and improve social welfare.

This paper extends the literature on the process of cross-border knowledge search and integration, as well as the roles of OIP. From a managerial standpoint, the conclusions have practical implications for firms to successfully acquire and integrate cross-border knowledge.