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We examine the Stein-rule shrinkage estimator for possible improvements in estimation and forecasting when there are many predictors in a linear time series model. We consider the Stein-rule estimator of Hill and Judge (1987) that shrinks the unrestricted unbiased ordinary least squares (OLS) estimator toward a restricted biased principal component (PC) estimator. Since the Stein-rule estimator combines the OLS and PC estimators, it is a model-averaging estimator and produces a combined forecast. The conditions under which the improvement can be achieved depend on several unknown parameters that determine the degree of the Stein-rule shrinkage. We conduct Monte Carlo simulations to examine these parameter regions. The overall picture that emerges is that the Stein-rule shrinkage estimator can dominate both OLS and principal components estimators within an intermediate range of the signal-to-noise ratio. If the signal-to-noise ratio is low, the PC estimator is superior. If the signal-to-noise ratio is high, the OLS estimator is superior. In out-of-sample forecasting with AR(1) predictors, the Stein-rule shrinkage estimator can dominate both OLS and PC estimators when the predictors exhibit low persistence.

Purpose – To investigate the effects of headquarters (HQ) involvement in innovation development and transfer at unit level.

Methodology/approach – We develop a theoretical model that we test on a sample of 71 innovations belonging to 52 business units located throughout Europe, Asia, and the USA. The data were collected by personal interviews and analyzed using the partial least squares (PLS) technique.

Findings – While HQ involvement in innovation development enhances the effects on the unit engaged in the development, it is detrimental to performance of the innovation transfer process. We also find higher HQ involvement in the innovation development process and stronger innovation impact on the subsidiary to be associated with higher HQ involvement in the transfer process.

Research limitations/implications – There is a significant beneficial effect of HQ involvement in the development process in terms of the increased impact of the innovation in the unit, and a harmful influence on the specific performance associated to the transfer process.

Practical implications – HQs will benefit from improved performance if they become more involved in important innovations while limiting their direct engagement in the transfer of “marginal” innovations. It might also be wise for the HQs to rethink their involvement at unit level by separating the development process from the transfer process in their decision framework.

Originality/value of the paper – This is one of the first attempts to empirically connect the processes of innovation development and transfer at unit level in MNCs and to show the implications of HQ involvement in innovation projects at subsidiary level.

This study investigates the impact of socioemotional wealth (SEW) on family firm entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in Saudi Arabia, and the moderating effect of generational involvement on this relationship. Our data set comprises 241 privately, wholly owned family firms. We examine EO as a strategic orientation expressed in terms of both firm behavior and how managers approach risk-taking attitudinally. Our study finds that SEW is positively related to firms’ entrepreneurial behavior, but not managerial attitudes toward risk-taking. However, the positive effects of SEW on firms’ entrepreneurial behavior diminish as the number of generations involved in the family business increases. The broader implications for enabling entrepreneurship within Arab transforming economies adhering to strong cultural tribalistic norms are discussed.

This study proposes and demonstrates a novel approach to analyzing customer channel preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) in the dual sales channel (DSC) system involving direct online channels and conventional offline retailers, and to how the pricing decisions are made under specific game competition.

Questionnaire survey based on central composite experiment design was utilized to obtain primary data. The model for customer channel preferences and WTP was then built by using multinomial logistic regression. The propensity of a customer to make purchases in either channel estimated by using the logit model was inserted in the bilevel programming model to formulate and solve for the Stackelberg competition where the conventional retailer acted as a leader.

The study found that channel prices have nonlinear impacts on WTP and channel preference. The empirical results complement the mathematical formulation well where high-order own-price and cross-price effects on channel selection are generally not analytical tractable. Under the Stackelberg competition, the traditional retailer (as the leader) still achieves higher profits than the online facility.

The proposed framework provides an empirical approach that can easily address the competition model in the sales channel when complicated own-price or cross-price effects are present.

The present work provides a novel approach to analyze customer preference and WTP of the DSC systems. This alternative method simplifies the procedure for investigating and estimating price sensitivity, especially when the online and offline prices affect customer WTP and channel preferences nonlinearly. This model is also utilized in the game competition to facilitate data-driven price decision making to better formulate and understand real-world DSC problems.

The antecedents and cost management methods and their effects on the value creation of inter-organization are essential topics of inter-organizational cost management (IOCM) in a hybrid relational perspective. This study aims to develop a synthesis coordinating mechanism theory which combines supply network theory and transaction cost economics. Using this modified theory, a structural model of IOCM and its hypotheses are developed by considering the organic connection among hybrid relational context, capabilities, methods and the effects of IOCM.

The data were collected under convenient sampling using the questionnaire survey method and analyzed using principal component analysis and structural equation modeling.

The results (significant at p < 0.01 and p < 0.05 level) show that there is a positive correlation among the hybrid relational context, capabilities (antecedents), methods and the effects of IOCM. Capabilities (antecedents) and cost management methods are also found to have a positive impact on synergic effect value and on improving collaborative efficiency in IOCM.

The managers of inter-firm networks may use the results of this study to ensure competitive advantages through collaboration with each other and building and retaining a long-term relationship.

This study demonstrates that the coordinating mechanism of IOCM can create the synergic effect value and improve the collaborative efficiency of the inter-organization relationship.

This study seeks to address three research questions: how technology capability impact business performance? Does the linkage between technology capability and business performance depend on specific contexts? Why do some high‐tech firms of strong technological capability fail?

The paper draws on various theoretical perspectives to develop hypotheses that propose a direct relationship between technological capability and business performance (both new product development and overall business performance), the mediating role of customer value, the possible moderating effects of business environment and other important contingent factors such as learning orientation. A conceptual framework is devised and tested that examines these relationships in general and in various contexts, which is believed more important and useful for firms to manage their technological capability more effectively.

Findings from high‐tech firms in China confirm the validity of the framework and afford various insights on the role of various contingent factors in the proposed relationships.

The paper provides a framework that examines companies' technological capability relationships.

This study analyzes the impact of intellectual capital on organizational ambidexterity by evaluating the mediating effect of the different types of organizational cultures (adhocracy, clan, market and hierarchy) on the said relationship.

From a sample of 124 directors of Colombian firms, the information is analyzed using Structural Equation Models through the Partial Least Squares method (SEM-PLS).

The results show that intellectual capital has a positive relationship with organizational ambidexterity and that market culture presents a positive mediating effect in the said relationship, while the mediating effects of adhocracy culture, clan culture and hierarchy culture are not significant.

Directors can favor the development of organizational ambidexterity by investing in the intellectual capital of their firms and by promoting the development of market culture attributes.

This work contributes empirical evidence on the mediating role of organizational culture in the relationship between intellectual capital and ambidexterity, highlighting the importance of market culture over other types of culture for the simultaneous development of exploration and exploitation capabilities, in the context of an emerging Latin American economy such as Colombia.

The study presents a conceptual model of a firm's supply chain agility (FSCA) as a formative construct formed by sensing and responding capabilities. Both construct validity and predictive validity of the model are tested by investigating nuanced effects of FSCA on business performance. The study aims to empirically validate the sensing-responding theoretical framework of Overby et al. (2006) and extend the emergent stream on sensing-responding frameworks for supply chain agility.

Survey research is employed. Data are analysed using partial least squares technique and mediation tests by Hayes PROCESS macro.

FSCA is established as a revised construct formed by the distinct capabilities of sensing and responding. The efficacy of utilizing FSCA as a formative 2nd order construct was established. In addition, FSCA is shown to affect business performance through mediations of cost efficiency and customer effectiveness, establishing its predictive validity.

This study contributes significantly to the literature on supply chain agility in terms of both theory and practice for cultivating supply chain agility. Drawing on resource-based view and resource-advantage theories, as reformulation of supply chain agility as a formative construct of sensing and responding capabilities, this research opens up new lines of inquiry on agility.

Nonexperimental research, defined as any kind of quantitative or qualitative research that is not an experiment, is the predominate kind of research design used in the social sciences. How to unambiguously and correctly present the results of nonexperimental research, however, remains decidedly unclear and possibly detrimental to applied disciplines such as human resource development. To clarify issues about the accurate reporting and generalization of nonexperimental research results, this paper aims to present information about the relative strength of research designs, followed by the strengths and weaknesses of nonexperimental research. Further, some possible ways to more precisely report nonexperimental findings without using causal language are explored. Next, the researcher takes the position that the results of nonexperimental research can be used cautiously, yet appropriately, for making practice recommendations. Finally, some closing thoughts about nonexperimental research and the appropriate use of causal language are presented.

A review of the extant social science literature was consulted to inform this paper.

Nonexperimental research, when reported accurately, makes a tremendous contribution because it can be used for conducting research when experimentation is not feasible or desired. It can be used also to make tentative recommendations for practice.

This article presents useful means to more accurately report nonexperimental findings through avoiding causal language. Ways to link nonexperimental results to making practice recommendations are explored.

This paper aims to shed some new light on the mixed findings of previous empirical studies on the effect of knowledge search breadth (SB) on firms’ 2019 innovation performance (IP).

The paper adopts a contingent approach that examines the two organizational factors in determining the shape of the SB-IP curve. The empirical study is based on survey data gathered from 414 Chinese firms. In dealing with concerns on simultaneity and reverse causality, perceived time-lag between outcome variable and explanatory variables was introduced.

This study reveals that knowledge novelty and absorptive capacity are two functions underlying the SB-IP relationship. The results also indicate that innovation orientation and firm age moderate the SB-IP relationship in different ways: the more innovation-oriented the firm, the steeper the inverted U-shaped SB-IP relationship will be, while the older the firm, the flatter the SB-IP relationship will be. Interestingly, there is strong evidence for the shape-flip phenomenon of the SB-IP curve: SB has an inverted U-shaped effect on IP when a firm is young; however, SB has a U-shaped effect when the firm is older than 37 years.

By revealing two underlying functions and two moderators of the association between SB and IP at the firm level, this paper contributes to shed some new light to the mixed results reported by previous empirical studies that have examined the effect of knowledge search on firm innovation.