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Empirical evidences support the benefits of environmental innovation to improve performance. However, previous research has not considered the role of resource alignment in green supply chain management. To fill the research gap, this paper aims to identify resource alignment as a potential moderating mechanism and to examine the relationships between environmental innovation strategy, resource alignment and green innovation performance.

The empirical study uses a questionnaire approach designed to collect data. Regression analysis is used for hypotheses testing.

The findings indicate that environmental innovation strategy and resource alignment between partners are positively related to green innovation performance. This study also provides considerable support to the key contingent moderator of resource alignment. The positive effect of environmental innovation strategy on green innovation performance is stronger under the conditions of a higher level of resource alignment between partners.

This study provides empirical support of the ecological modernization theory and integrates partner analysis literature and green management literature. Higher resource alignment may facilitate firms to develop environmental innovation strategy to attain green innovation performance.

Environmental innovation strategy enables firms to integrate ecological issues into their business operation. Managers could learn how to execute environmental incentive programs to promote sustainable development of green new product and green process. Managers need to pay attention to resource alignment that may have moderating influence on the performance outcomes of environmental innovation strategy.

This study highlights the importance of environmental innovation strategy and resource alignment in the process of green management and helps scholars and managers to better understand the moderator of resource alignment in quest of environmental innovation and green management.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a dedication-constraint-temptation (DCT) model to study the factors influencing customers’ loyalty to mobile data service (MDS) providers. The DCT model explicitly explores the important yet overlooked role of alternative attractiveness (the temptation-based mechanism) as a mediator and the boundary condition of their interrelationships (e.g. relationship length). The model also integrates new and established antecedents of customer-based brand equity (C-BBE) (the dedication-based mechanism) and switching barriers (the constraint-based mechanism).

The proposed model is tested using partial least squares–structural equation modeling with a sample of 331 MDS users.

The results indicate that C-BBE has an indirect effect on customer loyalty (via alternative attractiveness) in both relationship groups (shorter- vs longer-term). However, the indirect effect of switching barriers on customer loyalty only exists in longer established relationships. The results from multi-group analysis reveal that the effect of switching barriers on alternative attractiveness significantly differs across groups. In addition, customer value anticipation and procedural switching costs appear to be the most salient antecedents of C-BBE and switching barriers for both groups.

This study makes an incremental contribution by incorporating the temptation-based mechanism as a mediator and relationship length as a moderator into the dedication-constraint model. This study also extends the information systems and brand management literatures by demonstrating the strategic importance of customer value anticipation in the information and communication technology brand equity-building.

The emergence of social media has brought the influencer marketing landscape to an unprecedented level, where many ordinary people are turning into social media influencers. The study aims to construct and validate a model to yield strategic insights on the relevance of content curation, influencer–fans interaction and parasocial relationships development in fostering favorable endorsement outcomes (i.e. purchase intention).

The present study analyzes data from a survey of 411 consumers using partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to understand the net and combined effects of content attributes, interaction strategies and parasocial relationships on purchase intention.

PLS-SEM results reveal that content attributes (i.e. prestige and expertise) and interaction strategies (i.e. interactivity and self-disclosure) positively influence parasocial relationships, and in turn, lead to high purchase intention. Findings from fsQCA indicate six solutions with different combinations of content attributes, interaction strategies and parasocial relationships that sufficiently explain high purchase intention.

The present study demonstrates the roles of content attributes and interaction strategies in engendering parasocial relationship and the endorsement outcome (i.e. purchase intention) from both linear and non-linear (complexity) perspectives.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide public health problem which imposes a significant financial burden not only on patients but also on the healthcare systems, especially under the pressure of the rapid growth of the elderly population in China. The purpose of this paper is to examine the hospitalization costs of patients with CKD between two urban health insurance schemes and investigate the factors that were associated with their inpatient costs in Guangzhou, China.

This was a prevalence-based, observational study using data derived from two insurance claims databases during the period from January 2010 to December 2012 in the largest city, Guangzhou in Southern China. The authors identified 5,803 hospitalizations under two urban health insurance schemes. An extension of generalized linear model – the extended estimating equations approach – was performed to identify the main drivers of total inpatient costs.

Among 5,803 inpatients with CKD, the mean age was 60.6. The average length of stay (LOS) was 14.4 days. The average hospitalization costs per inpatient were CNY15,517.7. The mean inpatient costs for patients with Urban Employee-based Basic Medical Insurance (UEBMI) scheme (CNY15,582.0) were higher than those under Urban Resident-based Basic Medical Insurance (URBMI) scheme (CNY14,917.0). However, the percentage of out-of-pocket expenses for the UEBMI patients (19.8 percent) was only half of that for the URBMI patients (44.5 percent). Insurance type, age, comorbidities, dialysis therapies, severity of disease, LOS and hospital levels were significantly associated with hospitalization costs.

The costs of hospitalization for CKD were high and differed by types of insurance schemes. This was the first study to compare the differences in hospitalization costs of patients with CKD under two different urban insurance schemes in China. The findings of this study could provide economic evidence for understanding the burden of CKD and evaluating different treatment of CKD (dialysis therapy) in China. Such useful information could also be used by policy makers in health insurance program evaluation and health resources allocation.

As perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become one of the long-term sustainable development strategies for many companies, this paper investigates the interrelationships between sustainable values (SVs), perceived CSR and customer behaviour in the restaurant industry.

To gather data needed to meet the study aims, we conducted an online survey of restaurant patrons in China, and used partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to analyse the proposed models and test the hypotheses.

The obtained findings confirm that the three studied SV dimensions (equality, respect for nature and shared responsibility) have positive effects on perceived CSR, which in turn significantly affects word of mouth (WOM). Moreover, perceived CSR mediates the relationship between the three SVs and WOM but has no impact on the relationship between SVs and revisit intention.

The results of this study have practical implications for managers in the restaurant industry. Restaurant managers can prioritize their CSR efforts based on the relative importance of SV dimensions, which is useful in generating positive WOM.

Even though the importance of CSR is widely recognised, it is insufficiently studied from the perspective of restaurant customers. This research not only addresses this gap, but also expands the current understanding of SVs and their impact on CSR.

ETL format is a newly proposed CAD format, which is both simple enough that CAD models in this format can be easily sliced, and capable of describing solids with arbitrarily complex surface details. This paper aims to provide a method for slicing CAD models in ETL format.

The proposed slicing method is based on a method for slicing CAD models in colour STL format. Affine mapping method is used to calculate the colour of the intersection polygon of a voxel in the slicing result volume dataset, and a triangular facet that constitutes the geometry of the described object, when the facet has texture mapping definition.

The proposed slicing method is simple and robust. Implementations have demonstrated its feasibility.

The proposed slicing method is meaningful to preparing data for the rapid formation of models with complex surface details, including colour and textures.

The purpose of this paper is to go beyond satisfaction as an indicator of customer loyalty and propose a holistic model of service switching in a mobile internet setting. The model, which reflects both barriers and inducements of switching, is developed based on the “mooring” and “pull” concepts in the migration literature.

Focusing on Generation Y mobile internet subscribers, the study analyzed a total of 417 usable questionnaire responses. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to test the research model.

The results show that first, satisfaction and switching barriers (i.e. a focal firm’s marketing innovation initiatives, switching costs, inertia, and local network effects) are positively related to customer loyalty; second, switching barriers have a stronger influence on customer loyalty compared with satisfaction; third, switching inducements (i.e. competitors’ marketing innovation initiatives, alternative attractiveness, variety-seeking tendencies, and consumers’ susceptibility to social reference group influence) is negatively related to customer loyalty and the relationship is weaker when perceived switching barriers are high.

This study empirically validates multidimensional scales of switching barriers and inducements from a more nuanced perspective, and specifies them as reflective-formative type II models. This study is among the first to use opposing dimensions to measure switching barriers and its counterpart. Hence, it illustrates how the two contrasting mechanisms can coexist in the minds of mobile internet subscribers.

The missing employee voice has become a salient topic in China. This paper aims to document the newest developments relating to the topic by reviewing the recent literature on employment relations and employee voice. The findings of this paper suggest that the purposes of and channels for the employee voice in China have been undergoing significant changes. Different stakeholder groups have approached the issue. ‘Democratic management’ in China, the country’s home-grown concept of employee voice, has been resurrected to encourage more effective employee representation. Apart from this top-down influence from the government and All-China Federation of Trade Unions, this paper also identifies the bottom-up approach driven by the workers, and the external influence from the global corporate social responsibility campaign and nongovernmental labour organizations. Based on the review of the newest developments in workplace democracy and the employee voice in China, this paper proposes a stakeholder framework incorporating these developments. The authors also suggest some directions for future research.

This study investigates information quality, information security technology and information sharing with moderation by information security culture and information leakage and how they all play out to influence supply chain performance for contract suppliers (Contract), noncontract suppliers (Noncontract) and pooled suppliers (Contract and Noncontract combined).

Multigroup analysis was deployed to compare the impact on Contract and Noncontract.

The finding on pooled suppliers confirmed the hypothesis that, in the multigroup analysis, information security culture negatively impacted the information quality–information sharing relationship of Contract.

The practical learning point is that Noncontract could still share information and perform and in some instances better than Contract. Noncontract suppliers are still workable.

Information security culture motivated Noncontract to share and perform better than Contract. This result presents a dilemma.

The purpose of this study is threefold, which is as follows: investigate the mediating effect of brand fan page attractiveness on the relationship between user gratifications and customer engagement with brand fan pages, determine whether fan page agility moderates this effect and examine the influence of fan page engagement on customers' share of wallet and resistance to negative brand information.

By using an online questionnaire, 614 valid responses were obtained from the followers of multiple Facebook brand fan pages. Partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse the data.

The results indicate that fan page attractiveness mediates the relationship between user gratifications and fan page engagement. However, this relationship is moderated by fan page agility. Fan page engagement increases customers' share of wallet and resistance to negative brand information. This finding suggests that creating fan page content and interactions that are attractive to customers is not sufficient for promoting engagement; brand fan pages must also be agile to customers' changing needs and competitors' moves.

By proposing and testing a novel moderated mediation effect, this study enriches the uses and gratifications theory (UGT) and provides new insights into the underlying mechanisms and boundary factors driving fan page engagement. In addition, this study contributes to the customer engagement literature by introducing share of wallet and resistance to negative brand information as outcome variables.