Search results

The purpose of the study is to explore Shein’s “ultra-fast fashion” merchandising strategies as opposed to Zara and H&M, two of the most representative conventional fast fashion retailers.

The study was based on a statistical analysis of the detailed product assortment and pricing information of 12,000 apparel items at the stock-keeping unit level sold by Shein, Zara and H&M in the US market between January 2022 and December 2023.

Results show that Shein’s merchandising strategies differ statistically from Zara and H&M. Such distinctions can be observed through Shein’s deliberate adoption of a narrower product assortment, substantial investments in trendy clothing over plain-style staple items, a significantly lower product replenishment rate and a more conservative discount rate.

The findings offer unique insights into Shein’s business secret and deepen our understanding of the evolving fast fashion business model.

Focusing on the social influence processes in the context of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), this study aims to investigate the nomological network of social influence factors, a topic seldom explicitly articulated in the literature in this unique context.

This study adopts a mixed-methods approach to develop and test a context-specific model of social influence processes in MMORPGs. First, the authors conducted qualitative interviews with MMORPG players to identify the drivers shaping players' perceptions of social influences. Second, the authors formulated and tested a research model with quantitative data collected from 450 respondents of an online survey.

Through the qualitative study, the authors identify leader enthusiasm, social support and social presence as the critical drivers of social influence factors. The result of the quantitative study validates the influences of the critical drivers and demonstrates the impact of social influences on MMORPG players' we-intention to continue playing games.

This research extends the social influence theory by identifying contextualized drivers that shape MMORPG players' perception of social influences determining their we-intention to continue playing games. MMORPG service providers can draw on these drivers to leverage social influences to increase players' we-intention of continuance.

This study aims to explore the entrepreneur–venture nexus in transnational entrepreneurial ventures conducting operations in culturally similar countries. Theoretically, smaller cultural differences imply fewer challenges inherent to the liability of outsidership, thus facilitating cultural arbitrage activities. However, these minor differences can also hinder learning and increase competition with local firms, threatening the survival of ventures in the host country. To clarify this perspective, the research looks at how entrepreneurs’ resources affect venture survival, focusing on transnational entrepreneurs operating in countries that have relatively small cultural differences from their own.

This research is outlined by the capital approach in entrepreneurial opportunity development through a qualitative configurational design.

The results indicate that there are four strategies for achieving venture survivability for transnational entrepreneurship operations in culturally similar countries. This is reflected in both the core configurations associated with long-term venture survivability and in the model of venture survivability for cultural arbitrage opportunity development.

This study’s findings, which include the configurations and the model, speak to the burgeoning conversation of cultural arbitrage by illuminating venture survival strategies for international entrepreneurs operating in countries similar to their home countries. They are relevant for the international entrepreneurship discourse and the larger conversation in entrepreneurship, focusing on the entrepreneur–venture nexus.

The existing research on institutional distance implicitly posits the monotonic effect of contextual differences on the multinational enterprise (MNE) behaviors (e.g. entry mode, research and development (R&D) investment and subsidiary reverse knowledge transfer). Namely, MNEs from the same home to the same host countries are thought to have homogenous perceptions on the institutional influences and thus behave similarly. However, the authors argue that MNEs, due to their different performance aspirations in host countries, will have heterogenous perceptions on such contextual influences and thereafter behave differently.

Drawing on the behavioral theory of the firm and employing a unique sample comprised of 140 Chinese MNEs' foreign direct investments (FDIs) in Taiwan in 2017, the authors developed and tested the hypotheses.

The authors found that the emerging-market MNEs' (EMNEs’) perceptions of higher local institutional difficulties will be strengthened when their local performances are below their aspiration levels, making them more risk-taking. Nevertheless, EMNEs' local experiences and local equity-based partnerships will mitigate such negative perceptions, mitigating their risk-taking orientation.

The empirical findings make contributes to the international business (IB) literature by extending knowledge on the determinants and conditions of the heterogeneity in EMNEs' behavioral orientations when in face of the same institutional distance. The authors also provide managerial implications by showing that EMNEs' firm-specific resources (i.e. local experience and local equity-based partnership) will alter their perceptions of local institutional difficulties, leading to different behavioral orientations.

The study examines the influence of quality management practices (QMP) on project performance (PP) and the indirect association of QMP with PP through the mediating role of intellectual capital (IC). QMP may be one of the most successful strategies to improve project performance. Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV) and institutional theory, the study examines the impact of QMP on PP through the mediating role of IC.

The sample frame of 329 employees in different NGOs and public healthcare organizations was selected. Data were analyzed on SmartPLS 3.2.7 by applying SEM.

The outcome reveals that QMP has a significant impact on PP. The results found partial mediation of IC on the linkage between QMP and PP.

The key research limitation was that it examined only two antecedents (QMP and IC) of project performance based on RBV and institutional theory, which did not yield deep insights from other institutional forces that could influence the model, such as mimetic pressure, institutional pressure and business orientation.

QMP is highly significant in the healthcare sector; however, research on the relationship between QMP, IC and PP is lacking. Thus, this research is an initial attempt to investigate these relationships empirically. We add to our understanding of RBV by investigating the role of IC in mediating the QMP-PP linkage.

Drawing on covariance attribution theory, this study investigates how and when cross-cultural experience develops the entrepreneurial aptitude for rule-breaking. The authors sought to replicate findings in general psychology that morally relativistic thinking mediates these relationships. Further, extant ideas surrounding rebel-like archetypes of successful entrepreneurs were tested: that is, the more entrepreneurial a person considers themselves to be, the more likely they adopt such modes of thinking.

A second-stage moderated mediation model is applied using a novel between-subjects experimental priming design. Participants were recruited to reflect a generalizable sample of prospective entrepreneurs from the United States. Participants engaged in a randomly assigned priming activity to re-active their prior cultural immersion experiences. They then completed a context-adjusted experimental judgment task to assess rule-breaking.

Results show that reflection on prior cross-cultural experience is positively related to proximal scores in morally relativistic cognition. Moderating effects of entrepreneurial intention provide robust evidence that those high in entrepreneurial intention are more likely to rule-break when morally relativistic thinking is high, but that those low in entrepreneurial intention are not.

A growing research stream suggests cross-cultural experience can uniquely instill a range of entrepreneurial aptitudes. While psychology research has found evidence for “dark side” implications of cross-cultural experience, the authors posit that entrepreneurship scholars in this domain have been reluctant to tackle this due to the ethical grey areas between breaking rules constructively and breaking rules in more nefarious ways. This study provides evidence that morally relativistic cognition is more likely to drive people who consider themselves highly entrepreneurial to engage in rule-breaking tendencies.

The contractors’ consummate performance behavior is the key to achieving the project’s value added, but existing research has paid little attention to how to stimulate this behavior. Based on contractual functions and regulatory focus theory, this study examined how the allocation of contractual functions and the contractors’ regulatory focus affect their consummate performance behaviors. At the same time, considering the important position of guanxi between owner and contractor, this study also examined the moderating effect of guanxi on the relationship between the contractors’ regulatory focus and consummate performance behaviors.

This study first constructs a conceptual model that incorporates contractual functions (control, coordination and adaptation), contractors’ regulatory focus (promotion focus, prevention focus) and the effect of guanxi on contractors’ consummate performance behavior. Next, partial least squares structural equation modeling is used to analyze the survey data of 297 Chinese construction project professionals.

This study has the following four findings. First, contractual control has a negative effect on contractors’ promotion focus but a positive effect on their prevention focus. Contractual coordination and adaptation have a positive effect on contractors’ promotion focus but a negative effect on their prevention focus. Second, contractors’ promotion focus has a positive effect on their consummate performance behaviors, while their prevention focus has a negative effect on such behaviors. Third, both of contractors’ promotion focus and prevention focus play a mediating role in the relationship between contractual functions and their consummate performance behaviors. Finally, guanxi plays a moderating role in the relationship between contractors’ regulatory focus and their consummate performance behaviors.

Theoretically, this study enriches the research on the antecedents of contractors’ regulatory focus and extends the literature on contractual and guanxi management in construction projects. In practice, this study can provide guidance for improving contractors’ consummate performance behaviors and reasonable allocation of contractual functions.

This paper examines the evolution of massive open online courses (MOOCs) literature over the past 15 years and identifies its significant developments.

Utilizing main path analysis (MPA) on a dataset of 1,613 articles from the Web of Science (WoS) databases, the authors construct the main pathway in MOOC literature through a citation analysis. Pajek software is used to visualize the 34 influential articles identified in the field.

Three phases emerge in MOOC research: connectivism as a learning theory, facilitating education reform and breaking barriers to MOOCs adoption. Multiple-Global MPA highlights sub-themes including self-regulated learning (SRL), motivation, engagement, dropouts, student performance and the impact of COVID-19.

First, data limitations from the WoS core collection might not cover all research, but using reputable sources enhances data validity. Second, despite careful algorithm selection to enhance accuracy, there remains a limitation inherent in the nature of citations. Such biased citations may result in findings that do not fully align with scholars' perspectives.

The authors' findings contribute to the understanding of MOOCs literature development, enabling educators and researchers to grasp key trends and focus areas in the field. It can inform the design and implementation of MOOCs for more effective educational outcomes.

This study presents novel methodologies and important findings for advancing research and practice in MOOCs.

As an emerging video comment feature, danmaku is gaining more traction and increasing user interaction, thereby altering user engagement. However, existing research seldom explores how the effectiveness of danmaku on user engagement varies over time. To address this research gap, this study proposes a comprehensive framework drawing on social presence theory and information overload theory. The framework aims to explain how the effectiveness of danmaku in increasing user engagement changes over shorter time intervals.

A research model was proposed and empirically tested using data collected from 1,019 movies via Bilibili.com, one of China’s most popular danmaku video platforms. A time-varying effect model (TVEM) was used to examine the proposed research model.

The study finds that the volume of danmaku and its valence exert a time-varying influence on user engagement. Notably, the study shows that danmaku volume plays a more substantial role in determining user engagement than danmaku valence.

This research offers theoretical insights into the dynamic impact of danmaku on user engagement. The innovative conceptualization and measurement of user engagement advance research on pseudo-synchronous communication engagement. Furthermore, this study offers practical guidelines for effectively managing danmaku comments on online video platforms.

With the development of science and technology, more creators are trying to use new crafts to represent the cultural trends of the social media era, which makes cultural heritage innovative and new genres emerge. This compels the academic community to examine craft from a new perspective. It is very helpful to understand the hidden representational structure of craft more deeply and improve the craft innovation system of cultural and creative products that we deconstruct the craft based on Complex Network and discover its intrinsic connections.

The research crawled and cleaned the craft information of the top 20% products on the Forbidden City’s cultural and creative products online and then performed Complex Network modeling, constructed three craft representation networks among function, material and technique, quantified and analyzed the inner connections and network structure of the craft elements, and then analyzed the cultural inheritance and innovation embedded in the craft representation networks.

The three dichotomous craft representation networks constructed by combining function, material and technique: (1) the network density is low and none of them has small-world characteristics, indicating that the innovative heritage of the craft elements in the Forbidden City’s cultural and creative products is at the stage of continuous exploration and development, and multiple coupling innovation is still insufficient; (2) all have scale-free characteristics and there is still a certain degree of community structure within each network, indicating that the coupling innovation of craft elements of the Forbidden City’s cultural and creative products is seriously uneven, with some specific “grammatical combinations” and an Island Effect in the network structure; (3) the craft elements with high network centrality emphasize the characteristics of decorative culture and design for the masses, as well as the pursuit of production efficiency and economic benefits, which represent the aesthetic purport of contemporary Chinese society and the ideological trend of production and life.

The Forbidden City’s cultural and creative products should continue to develop and enrich the multi-coupling innovation of craft elements, clarify and continue their own brand unique craft genes, and make full use of the network important nodes role.