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The impact of executive characteristics on firm internationalization has already been extensively explored. However, relatively few studies have examined the critical role of chief executive officer (CEO) personality attributes, and especially CEO openness, in firm internationalization. This research aims to deepen the understanding of firm internationalization, by exploring whether and when CEO openness influences firm internationalization.

A sample of private high-tech listed firms in China is used, with data from 2004 to 2020.

Based on upper echelons theory, this study theorizes and finds that CEO openness will positively influence firm internationalization. Further, based on the behavioral theory of the firm, this study finds that the performance aspiration gap weakens the positive effect of CEO openness on firm internationalization, but also finds that the potential slack strengthens this effect.

First, the study reinterprets firm internationalization strategies from the perspective of CEO openness, a personality attribute; CEO openness is an important but so far rarely discussed topic in the field of international business. Second, for the first time, problemistic search and slack search into a research framework are introduced to explore the relationship between CEO characteristics and firm internationalization. This approach can further define the boundary conditions under which CEOs can project their values, preferences and personalities into the process of formulating and implementing a firm's internationalization strategy.

The authors aim to discuss the impact of research and development (R&D) internationalization on emerging market enterprises' (EMNEs') innovation efficiency, as well as the moderating effects of top management team (TMT) human capital.

The authors empirically tested the hypotheses based on Chinese listed manufacturing company data from 2008 to 2017.

R&D internationalization helps to increase EMNEs' innovation efficiency. Incorporating TMT human capital into this framework, the authors found that international experience, education level and technical background would all strengthen the above relationship.

First, the authors contribute to the R&D internationalization literature by providing the first empirical evidence that R&D internationalization will influence EMNEs' innovation efficiency. Second, this study enriches the research results on the driving factors of enterprise innovation efficiency and expands the related research results on the relationship between R&D internationalization and production efficiency. Third, the research highlights the prominent position of TMT human capital in the relationship between R&D internationalization and EMNEs' innovation efficiency, which strengthens the contextual characteristics of the “R&D internationalization-innovation performance” framework.

This study aims to re-examine the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on firm innovation. Studies on how EPU affects firm innovation have been inconclusive. The authors clarified the curvilinear relationship between EPU and firm innovation and examined the moderating effects of managerial pay gaps, specifically vertical pay disparity and horizontal pay dispersion.

This study’s analyses used data collected from Chinese listed companies from 2007 to 2019.

The authors found an inverted U-shaped relationship between EPU and firm innovation. Furthermore, vertical pay disparity strengthens the curvilinear relationship, while horizontal pay dispersion weakens it.

First, politicians should avoid adjusting economic policies too frequently because the high EPU levels created by frequent adjustments can inhibit business innovation. Second, firms should be aware that EPU creates opportunities for leapfrogging. In particular, firms can incentivize executives to take advantage of the valuable growth opportunities presented by EPU by widening vertical pay disparities and avoiding excessive horizontal pay dispersion.

First, the authors analyze not only the positive effects of lower EPU on firm innovation but also the negative impacts of higher EPU to examine EPU’s “double-edged sword” effect on firm innovation. Second, the investigation of vertical pay disparity and horizontal pay dispersion as moderating variables sheds new light on the equivocal research findings regarding the EPU–firm innovation relationship and clarifies the boundary conditions of the double-edged sword effect of EPU on firm innovation.

In recent years, the phenomena of “accelerating” and “jumping” during the international expansion of Chinese enterprises have attracted a lot of attention from scholars. However, while a CEO’s career horizon can significantly affect his or her enterprise’s strategic decision-making, few studies have explored the role of CEO career horizon in terms of “accelerating” and “jumping” internationalization.

Based on a sample of China’s A-share listed manufacturing companies from 2008 to 2017, this study explores the impact of CEO career horizon on the internationalization pace and international rhythm of enterprises.

First, the shorter the CEO’s career horizon, the more likely the CEO can avoid risky strategic decisions, which ultimately causes a negative relationship between CEO career horizon and the internationalization pace and rhythm of the enterprise. Second, for larger and older boards of directors, there is a more negative impact of the CEO’s short-term career horizon on the internationalization pace and internationalization rhythm of the company. However, given a larger proportion of female directors and non-executive directors, the CEO’s short-term career horizon has a weaker negative impact on international pace and the rhythm of internationalization.

First, based on upper echelon theory, this study interprets the influence of CEO career horizon on the time dimension of corporate internationalization (including internationalization pace and international rhythm), deepening the theory’s explanatory power. Second, by clarifying the important predictive effect of CEO career horizon on internationalization pace and international rhythm, this research enriches extant research on both variables’ antecedents, as well as that on the influence of CEO career horizon. Finally, by introducing the regulatory role of the board’s supervisory ability, this study clarifies the boundary conditions for the influence of the CEO’s career horizon on international pace and rhythm, and it expands the literature on how CEOs and boards of directors can influence corporate strategic decisions during the internationalization process.

This study aims to examine whether exploitative and exploratory overseas R&D have independent and significant effects on emerging economy multinational enterprises' (EMNEs’) innovation performance and whether top management team (TMT) nationality diversity and openness have a moderating effect on these relationships.

This study analyzes data collected from Chinese-listed manufacturing enterprises for 2007 to 2018.

Empirical results show that both exploitative and exploratory overseas R&D can help improve EMNEs' innovation performance. The authors further find that TMT nationality diversity and TMT openness strengthen the aforementioned relationships.

This study presents the first empirical evidence showing whether and when exploitative and exploratory overseas R&D have independent and heterogeneous effects on EMNEs' innovation performance.

Whether and when the innovation aspiration shortfall (e.g. innovation performance lower than aspirations) will affect emerging economy firms (EEFs)' international expansion remains an important unanswered theoretical and practical question.

Based on performance feedback theory, this study explores the impact of innovation aspiration shortfall on EEFs' international expansion and the moderating role of CEO origin.

This study finds that innovation aspiration shortfall has a positive impact on EEFs' international expansion. This study also uncovers that EEFs are less likely to implement international expansion in response to innovation aspiration shortfall when the CEO is a founder than when the CEO is a non-founder, and EEFs are more likely to implement international expansion in response to innovation aspiration shortfall when the CEO is an outsider-CEO than when the CEO is an insider-CEO.

This study proposes that the interaction between innovation aspiration shortfall and CEO origin can be a useful predictor of EEFs' international expansion.

While the effect of vertical pay dispersion on the voluntary turnover rate of vice presidents (VPs) has received attention, the existing research conclusions are still divided. Therefore, this study aims to explore the relationship between vertical pay dispersion and voluntary turnover rate of VPs in a Chinese context using data from listed firms.

Integrating tournament theory and social comparison theory, this study examines the non-linear effect of vertical pay dispersion on VPs’ voluntary turnover rates using empirical data from Chinese A-share listed firms from 2007 to 2016.

The results reveal a U-shaped relationship between vertical pay dispersion and the voluntary turnover rate of VPs. After further incorporating the moderating effect of the board governance structure, the effect is found to be enhanced in firms with more efficient board governance (i.e. smaller board size, higher board turnover and higher proportion of outside directors). Further analysis indicates that the aforementioned conclusions mainly exist in non-state-owned enterprises rather than state-owned enterprises.

The findings deepen the understanding of the costs and benefits associated with vertical pay dispersion, enrich the research findings on pay dispersion and contribute to the integration of previously inconsistent findings.

Many studies have examined the antecedents of firms' strategic change on a micro and meso level, but few studies have explored it from the macrolevel (e.g. economic policy uncertainty) perspective. This research draws attention to the impact of economic policy uncertainty on firms' strategic change.

This research empirically tests hypotheses based on a sample of listed firms in China during the period between 2010 and 2017.

Based on real options theory, the authors theorize and find that economic policy uncertainty will negatively affect firms' strategic change through the mediating effect of CEO turnover. Moreover, organizational inertia will strengthen the negative impact of economic policy uncertainty on CEO turnover and will weaken the positive impact of CEO turnover on firms' strategic change.

First, this research contributes to the strategic change literature by demonstrating the important impact of economic policy uncertainty on firms' strategic change. Second, this research expands the literature on the economic consequences of economic policy uncertainty. Third, this research clarifies the path and boundary conditions of economic policy uncertainty affecting strategic change by introducing the mediating effects of CEO turnover and the moderating effects of organizational inertia.

The first compressible flow solution based solely on the locally analytical method is developed. This is accomplished by developing the flow model and locally analytical solution for inviscid subsonic compressible flow. The stream function for irrotational, compressible flow without body forces was chosen as the governing differential equation. To demonstrate the modelling and locally analytical solution, this analysis is then applied to predict the flow in convergent nozzles, both planar and axially symmetric, for different back pressures. Results are presented which demonstrate the effectiveness of this technique.

A numerical simulation of the test beam was carried out with Abaqus and compared with test data to ensure that the modeling method is accurate. An analysis of the effects of the angle between the U-hoop and horizontal direction, the pre-crack height, the pre-crack spacing, and the strength of the geopolymer adhesive on the cracking load and ultimate load of the reinforced beam is presented.

Load tests and finite element simulations were conducted on carbon fiber reinforced polymer-reinforced concrete beams bonded with geopolymer adhesive. The bond-slip effect of geopolymer adhesive was taken into account in the model. The flexural performances, the flexural load capacities, the deformation capacities, and the damage characteristics of the beams were observed, and the numerical simulation results were in good agreement with the experimental results. An analysis of parametric sensitivity was performed using finite element simulation to investigate the effects of different angles between U-hoop and horizontal direction, pre-crack heights, pre-crack spacing, and strength of geopolymer adhesive on cracking load and ultimate load.

Under the same conditions, the higher the height of the pre-crack, the lower the bearing capacity; increasing the pre-crack spacing can delay cracking, but reduce ultimate load. By increasing the strength of the geopolymer adhesive, the flexural resistance of the beam is improved, and crack development is also delayed; the angle between the u-hoop and horizontal direction does not affect the cracking of reinforced beams; a horizontal u-hoop has a better effect than an oblique u-hoop, and 60° is the ideal angle between the u-hoop and horizontal direction for better reinforcement.

According to the experimental study in this paper, Abaqus was used to simulate the strength of different angles between U-hoop and horizontal direction, pre-crack heights, pre-crack spacings, and geopolymer adhesives, and the angles' effects on the cracking load and load carrying capacity of test beams were discussed. Since no actual tests are required, the method is economical. This paper offers data support for the promotion and application of environmentally friendly reinforcement technology, contributes to environmental protection, and develops a new method for reinforcing reinforced concrete beams and a new concept for finite element simulations.