Search results

1 – 7 of 7
Article
Publication date: 7 September 2018

Wan Jiang, Linlin Wang, Zhaofang Chu and Xifang Ma

The purpose of this paper is to examine how analyst recommendation change is associated with a firm’s magnitude of strategic change.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how analyst recommendation change is associated with a firm’s magnitude of strategic change.

Design/methodology/approach

This study argues that unfavorable analyst recommendation change serves as a powerful external assessment that current strategies are inappropriate and that changes are needed. This study also incorporates the moderating roles of CEO power and board’s informal hierarchy in the relationship between analyst recommendation change and firm’s magnitude of strategic change. Results from a sample of 824 observations generally support our predictions.

Findings

The findings of this study show that the greater the analysts downgrade for the company’s stock, the larger the magnitude of strategic change will be made. This study also considers the moderating roles of CEO power and the clarity of board’s informal hierarchy. In particular, the higher the CEO power, the weaker the relationship between analyst recommendation change and the magnitude of strategic change will be. The higher the clarity of board’s informal hierarchy, the more positive the relationship between analyst recommendation change and the magnitude of strategic change will be.

Originality/value

It extends research on the external predictors of strategic change by incorporating the role of unfavorable analyst recommendation change. In addition, it contributes to institutional theory by showing how external legitimacy pressure and internal corporate governance tool complement each other.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 31 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 October 2018

Zhaofang Chu, Linlin Wang and Fujun Lai

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how customer pressure influences green innovation in the context of Chinese third-party logistics (3PL) providers, and especially the…

3032

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how customer pressure influences green innovation in the context of Chinese third-party logistics (3PL) providers, and especially the role of organizational culture in moderating this relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on survey data collected from 165 3PL providers in China, hierarchical moderated regression analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses.

Findings

Customer pressure is an important driver of green innovation amongst 3PL providers. Flexibility-oriented organizational culture strengthens the effect of this driving force, while control-oriented organizational culture weakens this force. Green innovation significantly contributes to financial performance and flexibility orientation strengthens this contribution, while control orientation weakens it.

Research limitations/implications

This research examines the contingency effect of organizational culture in helping to resolve inconsistencies in the relationship between customer pressure and green innovation. Although the inconsistencies cannot be resolved completely, the research opens an avenue to explore other contingency factors or the possibility of a non-linear relationship.

Practical implications

3PL firms could undertake green innovation to satisfy customers’ environmental requirements. To develop their green innovation initiatives, managers should allow their employees greater autonomy and design (or re-design) operations procedures and regulations to be more flexible, thus enabling the diffusion of green innovation and avoiding or reducing the potential influence of control-oriented organization culture.

Originality/value

The study considers the conditional effect of organizational culture to reconcile the mixed results in the literature regarding the relationship between customer pressure and green innovation of logistics service providers.

Details

The International Journal of Logistics Management, vol. 30 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-4093

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 November 2016

Zhaofang Chu, Qiang Wang and Augustine A. Lado

Drawing on the customer value-based theory and the resource dependency theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how Chinese third-party logistics (3PL) providers…

2589

Abstract

Purpose

Drawing on the customer value-based theory and the resource dependency theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how Chinese third-party logistics (3PL) providers leverage their customer orientation to improve operational performance directly in a stable environment or through building and maintaining high-quality 3PL relationships in an uncertain environment.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey-based approach is employed to collect data from managers at 132 3PL providers in mainland China. Confirmatory factor analysis is used to assess measures and hierarchical regression is utilized to test the hypothesized relationships.

Findings

This study documents significant positive effects of customer orientation and relationship quality on operational performance, as well as significant mediation effect of relationship quality. However, the effect of customer orientation on operational performance decreased, while the effect of relationship quality on operational performance became stronger, under high rather than low environmental uncertainty.

Practical implications

An important implication for managers based on this study is that, in order to be effective, Chinese 3PL providers would need to become more customer oriented and to continually develop and leverage high-quality 3PL relationships in order to enhance their operational performance, especially in situations of high environmental uncertainty.

Originality/value

The paper documents the importance of developing and leveraging high-quality 3PL relationships as a key mediator of the relationship between customer orientation and operational performance. It also documents how environmental uncertainty exerts a powerful moderating influence in this relationship, providing insights into understanding how customer orientation is leveraged by 3PL providers to improve their performance.

Details

The International Journal of Logistics Management, vol. 27 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-4093

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 August 2020

Linlin Wang, Zhaofang Chu, Wan Jiang and Yifan Xu

This study aims to build on equity theory to assess the effect of chief executive officer (CEO) underpayment on the accumulation of firm-specific knowledge, accounting for the…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to build on equity theory to assess the effect of chief executive officer (CEO) underpayment on the accumulation of firm-specific knowledge, accounting for the moderating effects of the CEO compensation gap and the clarity of the board’s informal hierarchy.

Design/methodology/approach

This study starts with all firms listed in the Execucomp database for the period 1992 to 2006. Then, all data sources are merged and entries with missing information are excluded. The final data set used for model estimations includes 1,152 firm-year observations. The command xtreg in Stata 12 with the fixed-effect option (fe) is used to estimate the relationship between CEO underpayment and firm-specific knowledge.

Findings

This study proposed and examined the role of CEO underpayment in discouraging CEO willingness to invest firm-specific human capital and, accordingly, to adopt a strategy of accumulating lower levels of firm-specific knowledge assets. The empirical analyses strongly support this argument. Moreover, CEO compensation gaps and the informal hierarchy of boards negatively moderated this relationship. That is, CEO underpayment had a weaker negative effect on firm-specific knowledge when the CEO compensation gap and the clarity of the board’s informal hierarchy were high.

Originality/value

Prior studies from the knowledge-based perspective have focused on the importance of firm-specific knowledge in enabling a firm to achieve superior financial performance. However, relatively little attention has been paid to CEOs’ willingness to accumulate firm-specific knowledge. The present study contributes to the knowledge-based view of the firm. This study integrates equity theory with the knowledge-based view of the firm by highlighting how unfair compensation of CEOs may discourage them to fully realize a firm’s potential to generate specific knowledge. By incorporating the fairness issue of CEO compensation into the knowledge-based view, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the origins of firm-specific knowledge.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 24 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 August 2023

Chongyang Chen, Kem Z.K. Zhang, Zhaofang Chu and Matthew Lee

In the growing information systems (IS) literature on metaverse, augmented reality (AR) technology is regarded as a cornerstone of the metaverse which enables interaction…

1317

Abstract

Purpose

In the growing information systems (IS) literature on metaverse, augmented reality (AR) technology is regarded as a cornerstone of the metaverse which enables interaction services. Interaction has been identified as a core technology characteristic of metaverse shopping environments. Based on previous human–technology interaction research, the authors further explicate interaction to be multimodal sensory. The purpose of this study is thus to better understand the unique nature of interaction in AR technology and highlight the technology's benefits for shopping in metaverse spaces.

Design/methodology/approach

An experiment has been conducted to empirically examine the authors' research model. The authors use the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to analyze the collected data.

Findings

This study conceptualizes image, motion and touchscreen interactions as the three dimensions of multimodal sensory interaction, which can reflect visual-, kinesthetic- and haptic-based sensation stimulation. The authors' findings show that multimodal sensory interaction of AR activates consumers' intention to purchase via a psychological process. To delineate this psychological process, the authors use feelings-as-information theory to posit that experiential factors can influence cognitive factors. More specifically, multimodal sensory interaction is shown to increase multisensory experience and spatial presence, which can effectively reduce product uncertainty and information overload. The two outcomes have been considered to be key issues in online shopping environments.

Originality/value

This study is one of the first ones that shed light on the multimodal sensory peculiarity of AR interactions in the extant IS literature. The authors further highlight the benefits of AR in addressing major online shopping concerns about product uncertainty and information overload, which are largely overlooked by prior research. This study uses feelings-as-information theory to explain the impacts of AR interactions, which reveal the essential role of the experiential process in sensory-enabling technologies. This study enriches the existing theoretical frameworks that mostly focus on the cognitive process. The authors' findings about AR interactions provide noteworthy guidelines for the design of metaverse environments and extend the authors' understanding of how the metaverse may bring benefits beyond traditional online shopping settings.

Details

Internet Research, vol. 34 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1066-2243

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 September 2010

Qiang Wang, Baofeng Huo, Fujun Lai and Zhaofang Chu

The paper's aim is to replicate and compare Huo et al.'s study to better understand performance drivers of third‐party logistics (3PL) in mainland China and to disseminate Hong…

2450

Abstract

Purpose

The paper's aim is to replicate and compare Huo et al.'s study to better understand performance drivers of third‐party logistics (3PL) in mainland China and to disseminate Hong Kong 3PL providers' experience to mainland China's peers.

Design/methodology/approach

A structural model is estimated to test the construct relationships using data collected from 105 mainland China's 3PL providers. The results are compared with the results of Huo et al.'s study of Hong Kong 3PL providers.

Findings

While the operations emphasis of low cost may still be effective for mainland China's 3PL providers, it may result in worse financial performance for Hong Kong 3PL providers. In mainland China, low‐ cost emphasis is affected by local competition, but not by operational challenges, while it is influenced by both local competition and operational challenges in Hong Kong. Operational challenges have a positive impact on low‐cost emphasis in Hong Kong, but no impact in mainland China.

Originality/value

The study enriches the literature on China's logistics and provides mainland China's 3PL managers valuable insights from the business practices of their Hong Kong peers.

Details

Industrial Management & Data Systems, vol. 110 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-5577

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Internet Research, vol. 34 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1066-2243

1 – 7 of 7