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This study aims to explore the overall relationship between a boundary spanner and a partner firm, i.e. boundary spanner closeness to partner firm. Drawing on consumer-service provider relationship literature and the tripartite model of affect-behavior-cognition, the authors identify three key dimensions of such closeness, namely, boundary spanners’ relational ties, customer-specific capabilities and accommodative behaviors, and examine their effects on exchange outcomes in turbulent versus stable environments.

The paper examines the effects of three dimensions of boundary spanner closeness on various exchange outcomes (i.e. retailers’ cooperation, satisfaction and willingness for investment) using two industries as exemplars, characterized by distinct levels of environmental turbulence – the retailing networks of a major cell phone company and a petroleum company in China.

The results indicate that the three dimensions individually and jointly affect exchange outcomes and the interplay of customer-specific capabilities and relational ties affect exchange outcomes differently across industry turbulence.

The existing literature lacks a comprehensive understanding of the function of boundary spanners, which serve as a key relational interorganizational governance component. By identifying three key dimensions of boundary spanner closeness and examining their effectiveness in promoting exchange outcomes, this study advances the understanding of the role of boundary spanners in interorganizational governance.

How to determine the appropriate contractual structure for an outsourcing relationship has been a major theme in the business process outsourcing (BPO) literature. Drawing on transaction cost economics, this study aims to examine how anticipated coordination and adaptation costs in a BPO relationship affect the choice of contract types. Specifically, this research categorizes contracts types (fixed-price, time and materials and hybrid contracts) based on levels of contract design comprehensiveness and flexibility to change.

The research setting is the BPO for a focal firm, involving a contractor. Data from 153 US companies are collected using a structured questionnaire on senior executives of functional areas of marketing, IT and finance. Hypotheses were tested using ordered probit model.

The results show that maturity is negatively associated with anticipated adaptation costs, while modularity and IT detachability are negatively related to anticipated coordination costs. Furthermore, adaptation costs have a direct impact on the choice, whereas the anticipated coordination costs do not have a significant direct impact on contract choice. The strength of adaptation costs' impact, however, is significantly reduced when coordination costs are high.

This study explicitly examines the role of anticipated coordination and adaptation costs in shaping the strategic choice of contract types in the BPO market. By differentiating the two types of anticipated transaction costs, this research enables a better understanding of the dynamics between transaction characteristics, anticipated transaction costs and contract types in complicated relationships such as BPO relationships.

This paper aims to determine the most practically applicable color-difference formula for yarn-dyed fabrics woven from warp and weft yarns in different color depths and to establish color-difference tolerance for perceptibility by evaluating yarn-dyed fabrics visually and instrumentally.

A total of 108 sample pairs were evaluated by a panel of 13 observers with perceptibility method under three typical light sources (A, D65 and cool white fluorescent). The data sets were statistically analyzed by the homogeneity of variance test (F-test), analysis of variance, standardized residual sum of squares and performance factor/3.

Light sources had a slight influence on the visual assessments of yarn-dyed fabrics. Among the eight color-difference formulae for measurements of yarn-dyed fabrics, CIEDE2000(2:1:1) outperformed all other tested formulae, and the color tolerance for the perceptibility of CIEDE2000(2:1:1) was 0.62. When the homochromy index (K) of warp and weft yarns of yarn-dyed fabric was lower than 1.25, the color difference based on ΔE*00(2:1:1) between the two samples was acceptable in terms of the color tolerance for perceptibility (i.e. 0.62).

The warp and weft yarns in different color depths could be woven in fabric with a relatively uniform color appearance.

This study could contribute to cost savings by reusing disqualified dyed yarns during the weaving manufacturing process.

This study investigates the impact of cultural distance on foreign box office performance of East Asian cinematic production in European markets. Predicated on two dimensions of a film's cultural specificity, namely content- and aesthetics-based components, this research advances current knowledge on the moderating effects of cultural specificity.

The authors compile a data set of 515 East Asian films released in European countries during the 2010–2018 period. Data are analyzed by hierarchical linear modeling.

Results show that cultural distance plays a negative role in affecting foreign box office performance and that aesthetics specificity of films weakens such a relationship, while content specificity of films can further strengthen the relationship.

The findings suggest that cultural specificity is a crucial element and a relevant marketing tool in the cross-country film trade. Film producers and distributors need to consider both distribution strategy and intercultural context in order to align effectively with differing cultural distance and specificity.

This study proposes a new categorization framework of cultural specificity and demonstrates the moderating roles of content and aesthetics specificity on the relationship between cultural distance and films' foreign box office performance. It offers implications for both theory and practice in global film marketing and trade.

Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory and the motivation-opportunity-ability (MOA) framework, this study examines how salespersons' self-monitoring and psychological capital influence sales performance.

This study uses survey data from 293 salespersons employed in China and their archival sales performance to test the hypotheses posited.

The results show that both salespersons' self-monitoring and psychological capital enhance sales performance via adaptive selling. However, these elements are primarily substitutes in influencing adaptive selling. In addition, by dividing social capital into two types (i.e. family-based social capital and customer-based social capital), the results reveal that salespersons' self-monitoring enhances family-based social capital, but not customer-based social capital. Finally, customer-based social capital, but not family-based capital, improves sales performance.

This paper extends the literature on sales force management, which examines various psychological traits and their influences on sales performance. While self-monitoring and psychological capital have been investigated separately, this research simultaneously examines these two factors by drawing on resource conservation theory. Furthermore, it explores how these psychological traits impact salespersons' ability development (i.e. adaptive selling) and capital accumulation (i.e., family-based social capital and customer-based social capital), which, in turn, affect sales performance.

The results offer managerial insights into sales force selection and management. In particular, managers should encourage salespersons to obtain greater customer-based social capital, which is more valuable than family-based social capital in boosting sales performance.

The present research is also beneficial for employee psychological health management, as it seeks to illuminate the role of psychological traits, ability development and capital accumulation. It offers insights into sociological research on social capital by categorizing it into family-based and customer-based capital.

This paper extends the literature on salespersons' psychological traits, selling abilities and social capital by examining the impacts of self-monitoring and psychological capital on adaptive selling and social capital. Specifically, this study examines the interplay between self-monitoring and psychological capital from the perspective of resources conservation theory.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the operation strategy of high-performance alliance portfolios by analyzing the effect of alliance portfolios on the performance of focal firms, using post-structuralism of social network theory and contingency theory. In detail, this paper refines alliance portfolios into three dimensions, and studies the moderating role of context on the relation between alliance portfolios and firm performance.

The empirical study was carried out with second-hand data gathered from Internal Revenue Service. In total, this paper gathered data from 506 focal firms in Zhejiang Province from 2001 to 2010 as the sample to test the hypotheses.

Based on the empirical results, the authors find the positive effect of relational dimension (weak alliance portfolios) and partner dimension (the diversity of partners) on performance. The effect of the former will become weaker with the increasing environmental dynamic, while the effect of the latter will become stronger. However, the structural dimension (alliance portfolios size) and relational dimension (new partners) have the negative effect on performance. And the negative effect will become stronger under high environmental dynamic. Moreover, the negative effect of non-local partners on performance becomes stronger when the environmental dynamic is high.

The paper reveals that with the industry transformation caused by “internet +,” companies have been required go beyond traditional dyadic alliance management perspective. That is to say, individual alliance relationship should be seen as a part of a much broader picture of alliance portfolio. As such, the framework may help companies to manage their alliance portfolios by matching high-performance alliance portfolios to the external environment to produce a synergistic effect (Lea et al., 2006; Tritos et al., 2013; Keith et al., 2014) taking the characteristics of the configuration of alliance portfolios into consideration.

The paper presents a model that explains the effect of three dimensions of alliance portfolios on the performance of focal firms in different contexts through empirical study. This paper also integrates post-structuralism of social network theory and contingency theory to enable the understanding on the configuration of alliance portfolios.

This paper aims to synthesize benzothiazole-azo disperse dyes which can be applied not only for dyeing and alkaline reduction of polyester fabric in one bath, but also for dyeing and peroxide bleaching of cotton/polyester blend fabric in one bath.

The synthesized benzothiazole-azo disperse dyes were confirmed by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) spectroscopy, mass spectroscopy (MS) and UV–visible spectrophotometry. The performance on resistance to alkaline treatment and peroxide bleaching was tested by measuring the color strength of polyester fabric dyed with the synthesized benzothiazole-azo disperse dyes under high-temperature and high-pressure conditions.

Increasing the electron-withdrawing ability of the substituents in the diazo component and the electron-donating ability of the substituents in the coupling component resulted in a significant bathochromic shift of the maximum absorption wavelength. Except that the disperse dyes synthesized from the coupling components containing the hydroxyethyl group were unstable in alkaline solution, all others exhibited high resistance to alkaline treatment and peroxide bleaching.

The synthesized benzothiazole-azo disperse dyes provide the opportunities to combine dyeing and alkaline reduction of polyester fabric into one bath, and combine dyeing and peroxide bleaching of cotton/polyester blend fabric into one bath.

The synthesized benzothiazole-azo disperse dyes help to establish short processes of polyester and polyester/cotton blend fabrics so as to reduce energy consumption and raise production efficiency.

Leveraging boundary theory and person–environment fit theory, the purpose of this paper is to propose a model that illustrates the process by which nonwork-related information and communication technologies (ICTs) usage during office hours affects family-to-work conflict (FWC) and work–family balance satisfaction (WFBS), and the moderating effect of family–work segmentation preference (FWSP) in that process.

Analyses using PROCESS were conducted to analyze the proposed relationships on survey-collected data.

Augmented ICTs usage led to greater perceptions of FWC, though the strength of this association was contingent on FWSP in that integration preference buffered ICTs usage’s detrimental effects. Moreover, ICTs usage was shown to exert an effect on WFBS through FWC. The results indicated a mediated moderation pattern such that the moderating role of ICTs usage and FWSP on WFBS was mediated by FWC.

By focusing on ICTs usage for family reasons at work, the study filled a formerly acknowledged gap in the research field regarding how nonwork-related ICTs usage at work affected work–life balance.

The purpose of this paper is to present a simple method to analyze the iron loss in the laminated core of power and distribution transformers.

This paper presents a practical method to calculate the no-load loss in the transformer cores. Considering the non-uniformity of the magnetic flux density in the corner areas of the Epstein frames will affect the measurement precision of the Wt-B curves then further affect the core loss calculation in FEM, a dual-Epstein frame method is used to measure the Wt-B curves with the Epstein sample stripes cutting by different angles to the rolling direction. A 2D FEM that considers the type of joints of the core and eddy current effect in the laminations is used to analyze the core loss with multi-angle Wt-B curves.

The impact of lamination thickness, size of gaps and type of joint of the core are considered. Considering the no-load testing conditions, harmonics in the exciting currents are taken into account.

Harmonic wave of magnetic flux density in the transformer core is calculated and the core loss in the joint region is calculated by the loss curve measured with dual-Epstein frame. It makes the calculation result of transformer core loss more exactly.

The purpose of this investigation was to study a transparent coating based on organic silicone resins prepared by the hydrolysis and condensation of methyltriethoxysilane and tetraethoxysilane.

The coating film was characterized by IR, UV, thermal gravity analysis, scanning electron microscope and an automatic contact angle meter. Some properties of the coating film, such as adhesion, impact resistance and wear-resistance also were evaluated.

These uniform, clear and smooth coating films possessed the high transparent and light transmittance, high density, high hydrophobicity, good adhesion, hardness and anti-corrosion.

The coating may be considered as a protective film for the surfaces of the metals and plastics.