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This study aims to investigate the influence of inventors’ abilities to acquire external knowledge, provide broad and professional knowledge and patenting output (i.e. different types of inventors) on the formation of structural holes.

The authors collected 59,798 patents applied for and granted in the USA by 33 of the largest firms worldwide in the pharmaceutical industry between 1975 and 2014. A random-effects tobit model was used to test the hypotheses.

The inventors’ ability to acquire external knowledge contributes to the formation of structural holes. While inventors’ ability to provide broad knowledge positively affects the formation of structural holes, their ability to provide professional knowledge works otherwise. In addition, key inventors and industrious inventors are more likely to form structural holes than talents.

The results identify individual factors that affect the formation of structural holes and improve the understanding of structural hole theory. This study is unique in that most scholars have studied the consequences of structural hole formation rather than their antecedents. Studies on the origin of structural holes neglect the effect of inventors’ knowledge abilities and patenting output. By addressing this gap, this study contributes to a more comprehensive theoretical understanding of structural holes. The results can guide managers in managing structural holes in accordance with inventors’ knowledge abilities and patenting outputs, which optimize the allocation of network resources.

This paper aims to study how the timing of these decisions affects the total profit and the individual profits of the two agents.

This paper study a supply chain for a network good where there is a manufacturer and a retailer. The manufacturer determines its wholesale price and its share in the retailer’s advertising cost while the retailer decides the retail price and the advertising cost.

This paper finds that a stronger network externality leads to higher prices and higher advertising efforts. This increases the profits of both manufacturer and retailer, but the manufacturer’s share of advertising costs depends on the order in which the supply chain enterprise make their decisions, the strength of network externality and the effect of advertising determines which decision timeline results in a higher price and greater advertising effort. The manufacturer prefers the price decision to be made before the advertising decision, while the retailer prefers these decisions to be made simultaneously.

Although this paper studies the price and advertising decision-making order preferences of channel members based on network externalities, this research can also be expanded from the following aspects based on network effects. First, network externality affects advertising cooperation between both parties in the situation such that the pricing power of retail prices is transferred from the retailer to the manufacturer and the retailer relies on revenue sharing (revenue sharing contract, nonwholesale price contract. Second, the manufacturer dominates the issues in the supply chain, but in reality, a retailer can also be the dominator or there are no dominators (Nash equilibrium). Finally, it is possible to consider pricing and advertising decisions in situations where two manufacturers or retailers compete.

When the price is reasonable, advertising investment is the main determinant of product sales. The greater the intensity of network externalities the more retailers will be willing to invest in advertising. An increase in the intensity of network externalities may not necessarily enhance manufacturers’ motivation or cooperative advertising, but it depends on the decision-making sequence. The strength of network externalities determines the decision-making sequence preferences of supply chain channel members whose preferences vary leading to conflicts of interest.

The impact of cooperative advertising or decision sequence on corporate decision-making has not been considered. To fill this gap, the paper integrates network externality and supply chain cooperative advertising models, focusing on the impact of network externality on pricing and advertising decisions, as well as on the sequence of decisions.

For undergraduate and graduate students in universities, social media are playing an important role in their study/research because a large amount of academic information has been accumulated on social media. Indeed, social media are complementing university libraries. Given that intelligent recommender systems have been widely implemented on social media, this paper aims to examine the adoption mechanism of intelligently recommended information by university students in their study/research.

Building upon the updated information system success model and herding theory, this study developed a research model to examine the determinants of recommended information adoption in mobile applications for social media. Data were collected through an online questionnaire and analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The results suggest that herding belief is a valid second-order construct, comprising two first-order dimensions of imitating others and discounting their own information. Information quality, system quality and service quality directly impact satisfaction with the intelligent recommender system. Furthermore, satisfaction with the intelligent recommender system and herding belief directly impact recommended information adoption by university students in their study/research.

This study draws on the updated information system success model and incorporates herding belief as an extended component to investigate recommended information adoption, providing a new lens for understanding recommended information adoption by university students in their study/research.

Knowledge transfer which refers to the communication of knowledge from a source so that it is learned and applied by a recipient has long been a challenge for knowledge management. The purpose of this study is to understand influencing factors of transactive memory system (TMS) and knowledge transfer.

Drawing on the theories of communication visibility, social distance and flow, this study develops a research model. Then, data are collected from users of the social media mobile App. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) is employed to analyze data.

TMS is a valid second-order construct in the social media mobile app context, which is more reflected by credibility. Meanwhile, communication visibility and social distance each have positive effects on TMS which further has a positive effect on knowledge transfer. Flow has a positive effect on knowledge transfer.

Developers of the mobile App should carefully consider the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in supporting TMS and knowledge transfer. They should consider recommendation algorithm so that the benefit of communication visibility can be retained. They should design the feature to classify users based on similarity so as to stimulate users' feeling of close social distance. They should keep on improving features based on users' holistic experience.

This study incorporates the perspectives of communication visibility, social distance and flow to understand TMS and knowledge transfer, presenting a new lens for research.

The purpose of this paper is to study the influence mechanism of different levels of social capital (Structure holes–local network attributes and indirect ties–global network attributes) and organizational culture on the creativity of key inventors, and the role of organizational culture between social capital and creativity.

The paper tested the hypotheses with a sample of patent data accumulated from 46 firms in Chinese electronic information and automobile sectors. Negative binomial regression was used to explore the factors influencing the creativity of key inventors.

The paper discovers that structural holes are valuable social capital for the creativity of key inventors and very important in firms with a collective and conservative culture. Moreover, it also locates that key inventor are more creative in firms with an individualistic and competitive culture than those in firms with a collective and conservative culture.

This study emphasizes the influence of social capital on creativity and contributes to R&D management. It highlights structural holes are certainly important to key inventors in a collective and conservative culture, thus contradicting preceding studies that locate structural holes useful solely in an individualistic culture. This finding broadens our knowledge of the benefits of this network structure. Also, this debate challenges several basic views on structural holes currently.

Driving economic development at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) is an enduring global challenge. While the market-based approach places hope on entrepreneurship as a major impetus to drive the underdeveloped economy, the performance of entrepreneurial businesses and their impact on poverty reduction are sometimes below expectations. This paper seeks to examine the factors that may be hindering entrepreneurship within the BOP context. This paper presents preliminary answers and provides research suggestions related to this question.

In order to identify the reasons behind the underperformance of entrepreneurship at the BOP, a comprehensive literature review was conducted to see what is already known about this puzzle.

By reviewing extant literature, four clusters of factors were found to shape entrepreneurial activities at BOP: (1) Individual-level factors may be restraining entrepreneurial activities within BOP context, (2) gender inequality at BOP is hindering female entrepreneurship, (3) insufficient institutional support is holding back entrepreneurial activities in BOP and (4) business development initiatives are making multi-faceted impacts on entrepreneurial activities in BOP.

This paper contributes to theory in that it is the first comprehensive review of literature on constraints of entrepreneurship in the context of BOP. In investigating influential factors of entrepreneurial success in the BOP context, the authors recognize four major influential forces that are shaping entrepreneurial processes at the bottom of the pyramid and further propose three directions of future research that are worthy for further exploration.

Although the background on positive and supportive leadership styles and their positive effects is constantly increasing, it is known that negative and destructive leadership styles are less researched. Thus, examining the toxic leadership behaviors of nurse managers and the effects of these on nurses has a critical significance. When the measurement tools evaluating toxic leadership are examined, it is seen that there is a need for measurement tools that evaluate the toxic leadership behaviors of nurse managers. This study's purpose is to psychometrically examine the Turkish version of the Toxic Leadership Behaviors of Nurse Managers (ToxBH-NM-TR) Scale and test the hypothesized conceptual model that includes the relationships between toxic leadership, mental well-being and work engagement.

This quantitative research was carried out in psychometric, correlational and cross-sectional design. A total of 559 nurses were included in the study by using the convenience sample method. The ToxBH-NM-TR Scale, Warwick–Edinburg Mental Well-Being Scale and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) were used to measure the latent variables of the study. The data were collected between June and October 2020 with the online survey method. IBM SPSS Statistics 24 and Amos 21 statistical programs were used to analyze the data.

The scale-content validity index of the ToxBH-NM-TR was 0.88. Confirmatory factor analysis results showed that the fit indices were acceptable. The ToxBH-NM-TR had high internal consistency and temporal stability. In addition, the relationships between the latent variables of the study were in the expected direction and statistically significant (p < 0.001). The hypothesized conceptual model showed an acceptable or good fit to the data. Mental well-being partially mediated the relationship between toxic leadership and work engagement. The study showed that the ToxBH-NM-TR is a valid and reliable instrument and provided evidence that confirmed the hypothesized conceptual model.

The first of these is the fact that managers' toxic leadership behaviors were determined based on nurses' self-report. For this reason, participants' potential prejudices may have affected the results of the study. The second limitation concerns the data collection technique. Using face-to-face data collection techniques during the COVID-19 pandemic could create a danger/risk for the health of nurses, researchers and patients. Therefore, the nurses in this research were reached through an online survey on social media platforms. The participants of the study were limited to those who had access to social media. Finally, some socio-demographic and professional characteristics of the participants may be a confounding variable for the model. For this reason, this conceptual model needs to be validated on other samples in different countries to increase the generalizability of the research results.

The characteristics of this leadership style should be understood, and its effects on employees and organizations should be evaluated by screening regularly to prevent the development of toxic leaders and to eliminate the harmful effects of their behavior. The nurses should respond decisively to the forces that cause them to submit in order not to encourage a toxic leadership style. Healthcare institutions should develop procedures and take a proactive approach to destructive and negative leadership behaviors and practices. In addition, nurse managers should get feedback by using informal networks and 360-degree assessment tools and evaluate whether their leadership has a toxic function by regularly screening the effects of their leadership.

The results of this study offer important implications for nurses, managers and healthcare institutions and can be useful in gaining awareness about the negative effects of a toxic leadership style. In addition, the study provides a valid and reliable scale that will enable the identification of managers with this leadership style to prevent the development of toxic leaders and eliminate the harmful effects of their behavior.