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This study examines how informal business networks achieve marketing goals in socially uncertain contexts. Drawing from multiple historical sources, Shangbangs, a type of business network that thrived in pre-1949 China, are analyzed.

The Critical Historical Research Method (CHRM) undergirds a study of Shangbangs’ historicity (i.e. their socio-historically embedded multiplicity, including organizational forms, activities and connotations.

As informal regional, professional, project-based, special-product-based or mixed marketing networks, Shangbangs relied on “flexible specialization” and coupled multiple business needs to market goods and services, business organizations, specific social values and, when necessary, to debrand business rivals.

This analysis extends theories about marketing networks by probing their subtypes, diverse marketing activities, multipronged channels and relationship building with social entities (including underground societies, business associations and guilds) in response to pre-1949 China’s market uncertainties. Substantiating an alternative approach to “flexible specialization” and marketing innovations within the pre-1949 Chinese economy shows how a parallel theoretical framework can complement western-based marketing theories.

This first comprehensive analysis of Shangbangs, an innovative historical Chinese marketing network outside the conventional market-corporate dichotomy, can inform theory building for marketing strategy-making and management conditioned by social contexts.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of executives’ overseas education and work experience on enterprise digital as executives’ overseas background is critical to the development of enterprises. It also explored the mediating role of enterprise digital transformation on the relationship between executives’ overseas background and enterprise growth.

Chinese A-share companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges for the period 2018–2020 were analyzed using regression analysis and bootstrapping to verify hypothesized relationships.

Executives’ overseas study and work experience both enhanced enterprise digital transformation significantly, thus improving enterprise growth. The level of employee education moderated the mediating role proposed in the theoretical model. Moreover, the promoting effect of executives’ overseas background on enterprise digital transformation was more significant for non-state-owned enterprises and those in eastern China.

The findings provide reference for the formulation and optimization of companies’ human resource structure and have implications on the improvement of enterprise digital transformation and enterprise growth.

This study explored the factors influencing enterprise digital transformation at the microlevel of corporate human capital, thereby providing microlevel empirical evidence for research on the factors influencing enterprise digital transformation. Its findings shed light on the mechanism and context under which executives with overseas backgrounds may enhance enterprise digital transformation and growth.

Building on associative priming, anthropomorphism and biophilia theories, this study aims to explain that a natural–organic (that shows a natural object) and an anthropomorphised natural–organic logo (that shows an anthropomorphised natural object) both act as primes and imbue specific product value perceptions, which subsequently influence willingness to pay a premium price when products have not been used by or are unfamiliar to consumers.

Two between-subjects experiments were conducted with different products (one with real, but unfamiliar to consumers brand and another with a fictitious brand). Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses.

Experimental studies showed that natural–organic logos evoked stronger utilitarian (functional and economic) value perceptions, which triggered greater willingness to pay a premium price compared to anthropomorphised natural–organic logos. The effect of hedonic (emotional and novelty) values on willingness to pay a premium price was stronger when an anthropomorphised natural–organic logo was used.

This research offers novel theoretical contributions highlighting the importance of careful logo design to imbue desired value perceptions when products have not been consumed or trialled.

Anthropomorphised natural–organic and natural–organic logos can provide different benefits to brand managers and can be used strategically to form desired value perceptions before products are consumed. Brands that wish to enhance premium pricing via hedonic values should consider using an anthropomorphised natural–organic logo. Natural–organic logos may be more suitable for brands that want to emphasise superior utilitarian values.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research provides the first empirical assessment of the differential effects of the two forms of natural–organic logos on value perceptions and willingness to pay premium price.

Project complexity is a critical issue that has increasingly attracted attention in both academic and practical circles. However, there are still many gaps in the research on project complexity, such as the differentiated conceptualization of complexity and disjointed operationalization in the measurements. Therefore, this paper aims to conduct a systematic and detailed literature review on the concept, dimensions, assessment, and underlying mechanisms of project complexity.

A systematic literature review methodology was applied to search and synthesize the research on project complexity, and a final sample of 74 journal articles was identified.

This study first summarizes the concepts of project complexity from three different theoretical perspectives, and then identifies different approaches of measurement, evaluation, or simulation to assess project complexity. This paper finally establishes an integrative framework to synthesize the antecedents, mediators and moderators, and outcomes of project complexity, generating four suggestions for future research.

This study summarizes the definition and operationalization of project complexity to reduce the discrepancies in the existing research and offers an integrative framework to offer a broad overview of the current understanding of project complexity, providing a potential way forward for addressing project complexity.

Project complexity (PC) governs project success, but the project management literature primarily focuses on performance measures and rarely examines the complexity factors, especially for megaprojects. This paper aims to determine the most significant complexity factors for the railway megaprojects in India.

A mixed approach using the Delphi and best–worst method (BWM) helped to identify, validate and determine the most critical factors that require intervention to diminish variance from project performance.

The BWM resulted in stakeholder management, followed by organizational and technological complexity as significant complexity factors, and the varied interests of the stakeholder as the most important among the 40 subfactors.

The finding indicates the necessity for strategic, tactical and operational-level interventions to effectively manage the complexity affecting project efficiency because of the varied stakeholders. This paper will guide the project and general managers to prioritize their resources to handle complexity for effective project performance measured in terms of time, cost and quality and help them make strategic decisions. The research findings of this study are expected to help researchers and practitioners in better planning and smoother execution of projects. In addition, this study would help the researchers formulate policies and strategies for better handling of the projects.

This study adds significant value to the body of knowledge related to PC in megaprojects in developing countries. The result of the investigation underlined that nine complexity factors and seven unique subfactors, namely, the sustainable environment, timely availability of information, communication in both directions, interdepartmental dependency and coordination, design, statutory norms, site challenges, socioeconomic conditions, the tendency of staff to accept new technology and the frequent changes in the requirements of stakeholders are significant in railway megaprojects. The BWM is applied to rank the complexity factors and subfactors in the case area.

This study clarifies how intra-organizational social capital (IOSC) and unit-organizational ambidexterity (UOA), using resource-based view and dynamic capability theory, together support organizational value creation. While there is research in strategic human resource management (SHRM) exploring the role of resources and its uses, there remains limited understanding of how resources are linked and their effective utilization in the service sector. This study aims to examine the mediating process linking employee-experienced service-oriented high-performance work systems (SHPWS) experienced by employees and service performance by integrating IOSC and UOA.

This study uses time lagged data from managers and employees of different branches of Chinese state-owned banks. To test the proposed hypotheses, path analysis was applied.

The path analysis results reveal that employee-experienced SHPWS is an important antecedent of service performance. Moreover, IOSC (as resources) and UOA (uses) strongly mediate the theorized relationship.

This study attempts to refine theory and practice with clearer, more insightful and coherent means to better understand and help unpack the ‘black box’ between SHPWS-performance relationships through a new linkage model.

This study aims to examine the mediating and moderating processes that link airline brand image to passenger loyalty through perceived value.

The research participants were Taiwanese passengers with experience travelling abroad by air. Structural equation modelling and multigroup analysis were used to investigate the effect of airline brand image and perceived value on the loyalty of passengers using full-service and low-cost carriers.

For both airline types, airline brand image had a significant and positive effect on passenger perceived value. Perceived value had a significant and positive effect on passenger loyalty, perceived value was a crucial mediator and airline type was not a key moderator in the model.

In this study, focusing on the perspective of Taiwanese passengers, a conceptual model of the factors that lead to passenger loyalty, with a focus on brand image, was developed. This paper contributes to the literature and application field by examining the mediating effect of perceived value and the moderating role of airline type in the aviation industry; on the basis of the results, potential recovery strategies for airlines in the post-COVID-19 era are provided.

本研究檢驗透過知覺價值將航空公司品牌形象與乘客忠誠度連結起來的中介和調節過程。

受訪者是曾經有搭乘飛機出國旅行經驗的台灣乘客。本研究採用結構方程模式和多群組分析進行驗證, 分別從搭乘全服務型航空與低成本航空的乘客探討航空公司品牌形象和知覺價值對乘客忠誠行為的影響。

不論是就全服務型航空或低成本航空而言, 航空公司品牌形象對乘客知覺價值都具有顯著的正向影響, 知覺價值對乘客忠誠行為同樣具有顯著的正向影響; 知覺價值是一個重要的中介變數, 而航空公司類型不是關鍵的調節變數。

在這項以台灣乘客的視角為重點的研究中, 開發了一個以品牌形象為重點的導致乘客忠誠度因素的概念模型。本研究通過檢驗知覺價值的中介作用和航空公司類型在航空業中的調節作用, 為文獻和應用領域做出了貢獻; 最後根據研究結果, 提供後疫情時代航空公司的潛在恢復策略。

este estudio examinó los procesos de mediación y moderación que vinculan la imagen de marca de la aerolínea con la lealtad de los pasajeros a través del valor percibido.

los participantes de la investigación eran pasajeros taiwaneses con experiencia en viajes al extranjero por vía aérea. Se emplearon modelos de ecuaciones estructurales y análisis multigrupo para investigar el efecto de la imagen de marca de la aerolínea y el valor percibido en la lealtad de los pasajeros que utilizan líneas aéreas de servicio completo y de bajo costo.

para ambos tipos de aerolíneas, la imagen de marca de la aerolínea tuvo un efecto significativo y positivo en el valor percibido por los pasajeros. El valor percibido tuvo un efecto significativo y positivo en la lealtad de los pasajeros, el valor percibido fue un mediador crucial y el tipo de aerolínea no fue un moderador clave en el modelo.

En este estudio centrado en la perspectiva de los pasajeros taiwaneses, se desarrolló un modelo conceptual de los factores que conducen a la lealtad de los pasajeros, con un enfoque en la imagen de marca. Este documento contribuye al campo de la literatura y la aplicación al examinar el efecto mediador del valor percibido y el papel moderador del tipo de aerolínea en la industria de la aviación; Sobre la base de los resultados, se proporcionan posibles estrategias de recuperación para las aerolíneas en la era posterior a la COVID-19.

Construction professionals are the major contributors to developing a sustainable construction industry, whereas architects, engineers and quantity surveyors are the key construction professionals who must play extraordinary roles in achieving better sustainable construction. Therefore, this study aims to identify the job attributes of key Sri Lankan construction professionals in addressing challenges associated with climate change.

The study adopted a mixed research approach. A literature review and preliminary semi-structured interviews were used to appraise the job roles of architects, engineers and quantity surveyors in addressing challenges associated with climate change. The data collected through the qualitative approach were used in an online questionnaire survey, and the findings were analysed using the relative index method.

The findings highlight that regardless of the knowledge of the professional category on green rating tools, carbon footprint, adaptation of renewable energies for the reduction of energy consumption, building information modelling-related applications and waste management concepts/practices are the foremost job attributes required for the key Sri Lankan construction professionals in addressing challenges associated with climate change.

The results from this study provide a handful of guidance to construction industry professionals, national and international professional institutions, non-governmental organisations and other relevant authorities to address climate change within the built environment by identifying ways for improving the relevant key job attributes of construction industry professionals.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that explores the job attributes of key Sri Lankan construction professionals in addressing the challenges associated with climate change.

To achieve business success in a competitive market, hospitality firms are urged to search for different ways to enhance the firms' innovation capabilities. Drawing on dynamic capability theory, this study examined the role of entrepreneurial leadership in promoting product and process innovation through the mediating effect of innovation strategy and the moderating effect of knowledge acquisition.

Data were collected through a time-lagged (two waves, two months apart) survey from 137 managers and 322 employees working in 103 Vietnamese hotels. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the proposed hypotheses in our conceptual model.

The findings revealed that entrepreneurial leadership is positively associated with both product and process innovation. In addition, these relationships are mediated by innovation strategy. While the relationship between innovation strategy and product innovation is moderated by knowledge acquisition, evidence was not obtained for the moderation effect of knowledge acquisition on the link between innovation strategy and process innovation.

The findings advance innovation and leadership literature by identifying the roles of entrepreneurial leaders in managing an organization as a dynamic system and developing appropriate innovation strategy to adapt to rapidly changing environments. In addition, this study offers important implications for hospitality firms that are investing in innovation activities and are seeking ways to promote the firms' innovation of products and processes.