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Previous research has analyzed the consequence of network stability; however, little is known about how partner type diversity influence network stability in R&D network. Based on knowledge-based view and social network theory, the purpose of this paper is to unravel the internal mechanisms between partner type diversity and network stability through the mediating role of knowledge recombination in R&D network.

The authors collected an unbalanced panel patent data set from information communication technology industry for the period 1994–2016. Then, the authors tested the different dimensions of partner type variety and its relevance in the R&D network and the mediating role of knowledge recombination through adopting the multiple linear regression.

Results indicate an inverted U-shaped relationship between partner type diversity (variety and relevance) and network stability, whereas knowledge recombination partially mediate these relationships.

From the perspective of R&D networks, this paper explores that there are the under-researched phenomena the antecedent of network stability through nodal attributes (i.e. partner type variety and partner type relevance). Moreover, this paper empirically examined the mediating role of knowledge recombination in the partner type diversity–network stability relationships. The novel perspective allows focal firm to recognize importance of nodal attributes, which are critical to fully excavate the potential capabilities of cooperating partners in R&D network.

Many studies have investigated dynamic positions and their importance, but there is less attention paid to how to enter more central positions. Interorganizational relationships are an important factor in network structural change. In Chinese society, firms allocate significant human, financial and material resources towards cultivating guanxi. The purpose of this study is to explore whether and how the three aspects of guanxi, namely renqing, ganqing and xinyong, can make firms more central, and to examine the mediating role of interaction.

The study used a mixed method to collect data from 256 Chinese Cops (complex product systems) firms. And, hypotheses were tested using SPSS 25.0 and AMOS 26.0.

The results indicate that renqing, ganqing and xinyong have significant positive effects on the increase in centrality, but with varying magnitudes. Additionally, the interaction was found to mediate the relationship between the three aspects of guanxi (renqing, ganqing and xinyong) and the increase in centrality.

The study provides new insights to help firms become more central by combining guanxi (renqing, ganqing and xinyong) with change in centrality, enriching the literature on network dynamics and guanxi-related research. Moreover, the study provides managers with a clear understanding of how to use guanxi to make the firm more central in situations with limited resources.

The floating ring generates elastic deformation as the film pressure for high-speed floating ring bearings (FRBs). The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of ring elastic deformation on the performance of a hydrodynamic/hydrostatic FRB, including floating ring equilibrium and minimum film thickness.

The finite element method and finite difference method are used to solve thermohydrodynamic (THD) lubrication models, including the Reynolds equation, energy equation and temperature–viscosity equation. The deformation matrix method is applied to solve the elastic deformation equation, and then the deformation distribution, floating ring equilibrium and minimum film thickness are investigated. The maximum pressure is compared with the published article to verify the mathematical models.

The deformation value increases with the growth of shaft speed; owing to elastic deformation on the film reaction force and friction moment, the ring achieves equilibrium at a new position, and the inner eccentricity increases while the ring-shaft speed ratio declines. The minimum film thickness declines with the growth of inlet temperature, and the outer film tends to rupture considering elastic deformation at a higher temperature.

The floating ring elastic deformation is coupled with the THD lubrication equations to study ring deformation on the hydrodynamic/hydrostatic FRB lubrication mechanism. The elastic deformation of floating ring should be considered to improve analysis accuracy for FRBs.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-05-2023-0139/

This paper aims to investigate the antecedents of recombinant innovation from the perspective of ego–network dynamics, and further disentangle whether ego–network stability or ego–network expansion is more conducive to recombinant innovation under heterogeneous knowledge base.

This paper uses 1,801 patent data in China’s biotechnology field as a sample and adopts fixed effects regression model to examine the effects of ego–network dynamics on recombinant innovation and further uses the Wald tests to discern which ego–network dynamic is more conducive to recombinant innovation under heterogeneous knowledge base.

The empirical results indicate that ego–network dynamics have a positive impact on recombinant innovation. Specifically, for firms with high knowledge breadth and high knowledge depth as well as high knowledge breadth and low knowledge depth, ego–network stability is more conducive to recombinant innovation. By contrast, for firms with low knowledge breadth and high knowledge depth, recombinant innovation benefits more from ego–network expansion. As for firms with low knowledge breadth and low knowledge depth, both ego–network stability and ego–network expansion can promote recombinant innovation, while the effects are not significant.

This research may enlighten managers to choose suitable ego–network dynamics strategies for recombinant innovation based on their knowledge base.

This research not only contributes to the literature on recombinant innovation by revealing the impact of different ego–network dynamics on recombinant innovation but also contributes to network dynamics theory by exploring whether ego–network stability or ego–network expansion is more conducive to recombinant innovation under a heterogeneous knowledge base.

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 article is based on the unit patent license fee model in the closed-loop supply chain.

This paper analyzes the impact of the bundling strategy of the retailer selling new products and remanufactured products on the closed-loop supply chain under the condition that the original manufacturer produces new products and the remanufacturer produces remanufacturing products.

The results show that alternative products can be bundled, and in many cases, the bundling of remanufactured products and new products is better than selling alone.

If the retailer chooses bundling, for the remanufacturer, when certain conditions are met, the benefits of bundling are greater than the separate sales at that time; for the original manufacturer, when the recycling price sensitivity coefficient is high, the bundling is better than separate sales.

Effectively engaging patients is critical for the sustainable development of online health communities (OHCs). Although physicians’ general knowledge-sharing, which is free to the public, represents essential resources of OHCs that have been shown to promote patient engagement, little is known about whether such knowledge-sharing can backfire when superfluous knowledge-sharing is perceived as overwhelming and anxiety-provoking. Thus, this study aims to gain a comprehensive understanding of the role of general knowledge-sharing in OHCs by exploring the spillover effects of the depth and breadth of general knowledge-sharing on patient engagement.

The research model is established based on a knowledge-based view and the literature on knowledge-sharing in OHCs. Then the authors test the research model and associated hypotheses with objective data from a leading OHC.

Although counterintuitive, the findings revealed an inverted U-shape relationship between general knowledge-sharing (depth and breadth of knowledge-sharing) and patient engagement that is positively associated with physicians’ number of patients. Specifically, the positive effects of depth and breadth of general knowledge-sharing increase and then decrease as the quantity of general knowledge-sharing grows. In addition, physicians’ offline and online professional status negatively moderated these curvilinear relationships.

This study further enriches the literature on knowledge-sharing and the operations of OHCs from a novel perspective while also offering significant specific implications for OHCs practitioners.

Knowledge sharing in online health communities (OHCs) disrupts consumers' health information-seeking behavior patterns such as seeking health information and consulting. Based on social exchange theory, this study explores how the two dimensions of experts' free knowledge sharing (general and specific) affect customer transactional and nontransactional engagement behavior and how the quality of experts' free knowledge sharing moderates the above relationships.

We adopted negative binomial regression models using homepage data of 2,982 experts crawled from Haodf.com using Python.

The results show that experts' free general knowledge sharing and free specific knowledge sharing positively facilitate both transactional and nontransactional engagement of consumers. The results also demonstrate that experts' efforts in knowledge-sharing quality weaken the positive effect of their knowledge-sharing quantity on customer engagement.

This study provides new insights into the importance of experts' free knowledge sharing in OHCs. This study also revealed a “trade-off” between experts' knowledge-sharing quality and quantity. These findings could help OHCs managers optimize knowledge-sharing recommendation mechanisms to encourage experts to share more health knowledge voluntarily and improve the efficiency of healthcare information dissemination to promote customer engagement.

Research and development (R&D) projects are often pursued through a project portfolio (PP). R&D PPs involve many stakeholders, and without proactive management, their interactions may lead to conflict risks. These conflict risks change dynamically with different stages of the PP life cycle, increasing the challenge of PP risk management. Existing conflict risk research mainly focuses on source identification but lacks risk assessment work. To better manage the stakeholder conflict risks (SCRs) of R&D PPs, this study employs the dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) to construct its dynamic assessment model.

This study constructs a DBN model to assess the SCRs in R&D PP. First, an indicator system of SCRs is constructed from the life cycle perspective. Then, the risk relationships within each R&D PPs life cycle stage are identified via interpretative structural modeling (ISM). The prior and conditional probabilities of risks are obtained by expert judgment and Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). Finally, crucial SCRs at each stage are identified utilizing propagation analysis, and the corresponding risk responses are proposed.

The results of the study identify the crucial risks at each stage. Also, for the crucial risks, this study suggests appropriate risk response strategies to help managers better perform risk response activities.

This study dynamically assesses the stakeholder conflict risks in R&D PPs from a life-cycle perspective, extending the stakeholder risk management research. Meanwhile, the crucial risks are identified at each stage accordingly, providing managerial insights for R&D PPs.

The study aims to understand how cultural route heritage is conceptualized and managed in China by systematically reviewing the research literature on Chinese cultural route heritage (CRH). The study intends to inspire further discussion on the theoretical and practical development of cultural routes since the development is still at a liminal stage in China.

A total of 253 research articles related to Chinese cultural rote heritage from major Chinese and English research databases China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus have been comprehensively identified and reviewed for the purpose of the study.

Four major themes of research on Chinese CRH have been identified: conceptual evaluation, list of the routes and characteristics of the routes, conservation and utilization. The results revealed that China has very rich resources in CRH, many of which were formed a long time ago, which exist across vast geographic regions and have assumed multiple functions and undergone dynamic reciprocal exchanges among diverse cultures and ethnicities.

The paper summarizes some major obstacles faced by CRH in China and proposes a strategic model to address the need for a more sustainable development of CRH in the Chinese context.

The paper offers a comprehensive overview of CRH in China and discusses practical issues in management and development of heritage great in size, number and complexity.