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The purpose of our study is to investigate the effects of politically-connected boards (PCBs) on over-(under-)investment in labor. We also examine the impacts of the supervisory board (SB)’s optimal tenure on the association between PCBs and over-investment in labor.

We constructed the proxy for PCBs using a dummy variable set to 1 (one) if a firm has politically-connected boards and zero (0) otherwise. For the robustness check, we used the number of politically-connected members on the boards as the proxy for PCBs.

We find that the presence of PCBs reduces over-investment in labor. Consistent with our prediction, we found no significant association between PCBs and under-investment in labor. We also find that the SB with optimal tenure strengthens the negative association between PCBs and over-investment in labor. In our channel analysis, we find that the presence of PCB mitigates over-investment in labor through a higher dividend payout ratio.

Due to the unavailability of data in firms’ annual reports regarding the number of poorly-skilled and highly skilled employees, we were not able to examine the effect of low-skilled and high-skilled employees on over-investment in labor. Also, we were not able to examine over-(under-)investment in labor by drawing a distinction between general (generalist) and firm-specific human capital (specialist) as suggested by Sevcenko, Wu, and Kacperczyk (2022). Generally, it is more difficult for managers to hire highly-skilled employees, specialists in particular, thereby driving the choice of either over- or under-investing in the labor forces. In addition, in the firms’ annual reports, there is no information regarding temporary employees. Therefore, if and when such data become available, this would provide another avenue for future research.

Our study offers several practical implications and insights to stakeholders (e.g. insiders or management, shareholders, investors, analysts and creditors) in the following ways. First, our study highlights significant differences between capital investment and labor investment. For instance, labor investment is considered an expense rather than an asset (Wyatt, 2008) because, although such investment is human capital and is not recognized on the firm’s balance sheet (Boon et al., 2017). In addition, labor investment is characterized by: its flexibility which enables firms to make frequent adjustments (Hamermesh, 1995; Dixit & Pindyck, 2012; Aksin et al., 2015), its non-homogeneity since every employee is unique (Luo et al., 2020), its direct impact on morale and productivity of a firm (Azadegan et al., 2013; Mishina et al., 2004; Tatikonda et al., 2013), and its financial outlay which affects the ongoing cash flows of a firm (Sualihu et al., 2021; Khedmati et al., 2020; Merz & Yashiv, 2007). Second, our findings reveal that the presence of PCBs could help to reduce over-investment in labor. However, if managers of a firm choose to under-invest in labor in order to obtain better profit in the short-term through cost saving, they should be aware of the potential consequences of facing a financial loss when a new business opportunity suddenly arises which requires a larger labor force. Third, our findings help stakeholders to re-focus on the labor investment. This is crucial due to the fact that labor investment is often neglected by those stakeholders because the expenditure of labor investment is not recognized on the firm’s balance sheet as an asset. Instead, it is written off as an expense in the firm’s income statement. Fourth, our findings also provide insightful information to stakeholders, suggesting that an SB with optimal tenure is more committed to a firm, and this factor plays an important role in strengthening the negative association between PCBs and over-investment in labor.

First, our findings provide a valuable understanding of the effects of PCBs on over-(under-)investment in labor. Stakeholders could use information disclosed in the financial statements of a publicly-listed firm to determine the extent of the firm’s investment in labor and PCBs, and compare this information with similar firms in the same industry sector. Second, our findings give a better understanding of the association between investment in labor and political connections , which are human and social capital that could determine the long-term survival and success of a firm. Third, for shareholders, the appointment of board members with political connections is an important strategic decision to build political capital, which is likely to have a long-term impact on the financial performance of a firm; therefore, it requires thoughtful consultation with firm insiders.

Our findings highlight the role of PCBs in reducing over-investment in labor. These findings are significant because both investment in labor and political connections as human and social capital can play an important role in determining the long-term survival and success of a firm.

This study investigates the ubiquitous business model and e-commerce strategy of WeChat as a platform. The potential of WeChat as a tool for sustainable entrepreneurial development has received limited attention from researchers. The purpose of this study is to uncover the hidden issues associated with WeChat's role in e-commerce development. It also examines the opportunities and limitations of using WeChat for e-commerce. The study employs a qualitative research approach, including an extensive literature review and ethnographic study. The results demonstrate that leveraging mobile apps like WeChat can greatly enhance entrepreneurial tendencies and foster sustainable entrepreneurship, thus contributing to poverty eradication in emerging nations.

In this study, the authors sought to investigate how the implicit social ties of both project owners and potential backers are associated with crowdfunding project success.

Drawing on social ties theory and factors that affect crowdfunding success, in this research, the authors developed a model to study how project owners' and potential backers' implicit social ties are associated with crowdfunding projects' degrees of success. The proposed model was empirically tested with crowdfunding data collected from Kickstarter and social media data collected from Twitter. The authors performed the test using an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model with fixed effects.

The authors found that project owners' implicit social ties (specifically, their social media activities, degree centrality and betweenness centrality) are significantly and positively associated with crowdfunding projects' degrees of success. Meanwhile, potential project backers' implicit social ties (their social media activities and degree centrality) are negatively associated with crowdfunding projects' degrees of success. The authors also found that project size moderates the effects of project owners' social media activities on projects' degrees of success.

This work contributes to the literature on crowdfunding by investigating how the implicit social ties of both potential backers and project owners on social media are associated with crowdfunding project success. This study extends the previous research on social ties' roles in explaining crowdfunding project success by including implicit social ties, while the literature explored only explicit social ties.

This study aims to explore how to overcome and address the loss of exploratory innovation, thereby achieving greater success in exploratory innovation. This phenomenon of loss occurs when enterprises decrease their investment in and engagement with exploratory innovation, ultimately leading to an insufficient amount of such innovation efforts. Drawing on dynamic capabilities, this study investigates the relationship between organizational foresight and exploratory innovation and examines the moderating role of breakthrough orientation/financial orientation.

This study used survey data collected from 296 Chinese high-tech companies in multiple industries and sectors.

The evidence produced by this study reveals that three elements of organizational foresight (i.e. environmental scanning capabilities, strategic selection capabilities and integrating capabilities) positively influence exploratory innovation. Furthermore, this positive effect is strengthened in the context of a high-breakthrough orientation. Moreover, the relationships among environmental scanning capabilities, strategic selection capabilities and exploratory innovation become weaker as an enterprise’s financial orientation increases, whereas a strong financial orientation does not affect the relationship between integrating capabilities and exploratory innovation.

Ambidexterity is key to successful enterprise innovation. Compared with exploitative innovation, it is by no means easy to engage in exploratory innovation, which is especially important in high-tech companies. While the loss of exploratory innovation has been observed, few empirical studies have explored ways to promote exploratory innovation more effectively. A key research implication of this study pertains to the role of organizational foresight in the improvement of exploratory innovation in the context of high-tech companies.

This paper contributes to the broader literature on exploratory innovation and organizational foresight and provides practical guidance for high-tech companies regarding ways of avoiding the loss of exploratory innovation and becoming more successful at exploratory innovation.

This article develops a benefit curve and a cost curve that relate the strength of a CEO’s social tie to its benefits and costs respectively, and thereby develops a cost-benefit framework for understanding the strengths of CEO social ties. In particular, this framework helps address the basic, yet largely unanswered questions of why one tie is stronger than another and why a CEO utilizes social ties to a greater extent in one context than in another.

As a conceptual paper, this article develops a cost-benefit framework for understanding the strengths of CEO social ties.

This article suggests an important shift of research focus and a different way of thinking regarding tie strength. Specifically, it suggests that the more fundamental question might not be whether a social tie is beneficial or one tie is more beneficial than another, but rather what its optimal strength is, given the underlying relational factors such as resource dependence and demographic similarity. Relatedly, the question might not be whether a CEO’s level of utilization of social ties has a more positive effect on firm performance in one context than in another, but rather what the optimal level of utilization is, given the contextual factors such as environmental uncertainty.

This article addresses a widely accepted, yet potentially misleading understanding of the relationship between a tie’s strength and its benefits (i.e. the strength of weak ties argument). By doing so, it develops a benefit curve that integrates into a coherent, parsimonious function three seemingly conflicting key ideas in the literature (i.e. the overall notion that social ties are beneficial, the strength of weak ties argument, and the liability of strong ties argument). Relatedly, it develops a coherent framework for understanding the strengths of CEO social ties.

This study investigates the finance-investment nexus in sub-Saharan Africa using data from 41 countries spanning the period from 2000 to 2022. The central question addressed is whether there is a “too little” or “too much” finance problem in the region.

This study employs a system-generalised method of moments (GMM) approach to analyse the association between finance and private investment. Additionally, a dynamic threshold regression model is used to uncover potential nonlinearities in this relationship.

Initially, the study identifies a negative correlation between increased finance and private investment. However, further analysis using the dynamic threshold regression model reveals a critical threshold level of finance. Specifically, the threshold is found to be 6.52% of domestic credit to the private sector and 23.18% using the financial development index. Below this threshold, finance negatively impacts private investment, while surpassing this threshold leads to positive growth in private investment. These findings indicate an issue of “too little” finance in the finance and private investment nexus in sub-Saharan Africa. The results are robust across different model specifications.

The implications of this study highlight the importance of identifying critical thresholds for financing to enhance investment expenditures in the region.

This study contributes to the literature by uncovering nonlinearities in the finance-investment nexus in sub-Saharan Africa. The identification of critical thresholds provides valuable insights for policymakers, emphasising the need to strengthen the financial sector in countries operating below these thresholds to promote private investment and economic growth.

The “VUCA world” is an environment characterized by unprecedented levels of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA). In such a turbulent environment, corporate entrepreneurship is key for all businesses, especially family firms. Corporate entrepreneurship is a concept that enables innovation, growth, and competitive advantage over competitors. It is a driving force for organizations to make changes in their structures and operations to respond to changes by using the limited resources they have in the environments in which they operate and to reduce the negative effects of shortening product life cycles. Family firms, which have an important place in the economies of countries, are indispensable players in economic activities, they need to think more strategically, and innovative and have an entrepreneurial perspective in ensuring their adaptation for competitive and growth purposes. In this study, the relationship between the place of family firms in the VUCA world and corporate entrepreneurship was tried to be established, and the corporate entrepreneurship of family firms was examined in line with their corporate logic. For this purpose, the news on the corporate websites of seven family companies operating in Türkiye and included in the 2023 Family Business Index was analyzed by content analysis method. Data were coded with thematic coding and findings were revealed. Common types of logic in family firms are market logic and efficiency and savings logic, with a hybrid characteristic consisting of a combination of market logic and efficiency and savings logic.

This chapter specifically examines the convergence (divergence) effect of agricultural production by sector and the effect of agricultural production on environmental sustainability using West African countries as a case study. Annual time series variables covering the periods from 2000 to 2022 were empirically analysed using system dynamic panel-data estimation. Results showed significant beta-divergence in crop production, livestock production and total agricultural production, with a half-life of divergence rates of 10.71%, 13.15% and 16.91%, respectively, for crops, livestock and aggregate agricultural production. It was also found that the consumer prices index had a positive and significant effect on crop production, livestock production and total agricultural production. The findings also showed that crops and livestock production had a negative and significant effect on arable land and a positive and insignificant effect on CO₂ emissions. Also, total agricultural production had a negative and insignificant effect on arable land and a positive and insignificant effect on CO₂ emissions. It was also found that gross fixed capital formation had a negative and significant effect on arable land and a negative and insignificant effect on CO₂ emissions. The government and pertinent parties ought to promote sustainable farming practices such as conservation agriculture, rotational grazing, agroecology and reduced dependency on chemical inputs. Policies that support legislation that provide financial incentives for environmentally sustainable agricultural activities and encourage of preservation of biodiversity are suggested.

This study aims to examine theme park visitor interactions and their effects on experiences. It specifically aims to investigate perceived similarity’s impact on immersion and memorable experiences and how these experiences influence revisit intention and recommendations while exploring the mediating role of immersion within theme park settings.

A cross-sectional survey design was used, collecting data through purposive sampling from 494 respondents through a face-to-face survey at Jatim Theme Park, Indonesia.

The analysis confirms visitors’ perceived similarity significantly influences their sense of immersion and, in return, contributes to creating memorable experiences. In return, their memorable theme park experiences significantly impact their revisit intentions and willingness to recommend. In addition, this study also found that sense of immersion substantially mediates the relationship between perceived similarity and memorable experiences.

This research bridges gaps in the existing literature by integrating social interaction factors with experiential outcomes, contributing to current theoretical advancement and practical applications in theme park research.

This study contributes to the advanced understanding of social identity theory, similarity-attraction theory and flow theory within theme park management settings, providing valuable practical insights for theme park managers.

This study’s originality lies in its integrated analysis of the interplay between perceived similarity among theme park visitors and their immersive experiences and how these elements collectively enhance memorable tourism experiences. By highlighting the mediating role of immersion, it offers novel insights into the mechanisms that drive visitor engagement and behavioral intentions, thus providing a better understanding of visitor dynamics in theme parks.

本研究考察了主题公园游客互动及其对体验的影响。具体来说, 旨在调查感知相似性对沉浸感和难忘体验的影响, 以及这些体验如何影响游客的重游意图和推荐意愿, 同时探索沉浸感在主题公园环境中的中介作用。

采用横断面调查设计, 通过在印度尼西亚贾丁主题公园进行面对面调查, 从494名受访者处收集数据, 采用目的性抽样方法。

结构方程模型（SEM）分析确认, 游客的感知相似性显著影响他们的沉浸感, 进而有助于创造难忘的体验。反过来, 这些难忘的主题公园体验显著影响了他们的重游意图和推荐意愿。此外, 本研究还发现, 沉浸感在感知相似性与难忘体验之间的关系中起到了显著的中介作用。

本研究通过将社会互动因素与体验结果结合, 填补了现有文献中的空白, 为主题公园研究的理论发展和实践应用做出了贡献。

本研究有助于深入理解社会身份理论、相似吸引理论和流动理论在主题公园管理中的应用, 为主题公园经理提供了宝贵的实践洞见。

本研究的原创性在于对主题公园游客之间的感知相似性与他们的沉浸体验之间相互作用的综合分析, 以及这些因素如何共同增强难忘的旅游体验。通过突显沉浸感的中介作用, 本研究提供了关于驱动游客参与和行为意图的机制的新见解, 从而更好地理解了主题公园中的游客动态。

Este estudio analiza las interacciones de los visitantes de parques temáticos y sus efectos en las experiencias. En concreto, pretende investigar el impacto de la similitud percibida en la inmersión y las experiencias memorables y cómo estas experiencias influyen en la intención de volver a visitar el lugar y en las recomendaciones, al tiempo que explora el papel mediador de la inmersión en el entorno de los parques temáticos.

Se empleó un diseño de encuesta transversal, recogiendo datos mediante muestreo por conveniencia de 494 encuestados a través de una encuesta personal en el Parque Temático de Jatim, Indonesia.

El análisis confirma que la similitud percibida por los visitantes influye significativamente en su sensación de inmersión y, a su vez, contribuye a crear experiencias memorables. Asimismo, las experiencias memorables en los parques temáticos influyen significativamente en su intención de volver a visitarlos y en su disposición a recomendarlos. Además, este estudio también evidencia que el sentido de inmersión media significativamente en la relación entre la similitud percibida y las experiencias memorables.

Esta investigación cubre lagunas en la literatura existente al integrar factores de interacción social con resultados experienciales, contribuyendo al avance teórico actual y a las aplicaciones prácticas en la investigación de parques temáticos.

Este estudio contribuye a la comprensión avanzada de la teoría de la identidad social, la teoría de la similitud-atracción y la teoría del flujo en entornos de gestión de parques temáticos, proporcionando valiosas perspectivas prácticas para los gestores de parques temáticos.

La originalidad de este estudio radica en su análisis integrado de la interacción entre la similitud percibida entre los visitantes de parques temáticos y sus experiencias de inmersión y cómo estos elementos potencian colectivamente las experiencias turísticas memorables. El papel mediador de la inmersión ofrece nuevas perspectivas sobre los mecanismos que impulsan el compromiso y las intenciones de comportamiento de los visitantes, proporcionando así una mejor comprensión de la dinámica de los visitantes en los parques temáticos.

With the development of data mining technology, diverse and broader domain knowledge can be extracted automatically. However, the research on applying knowledge mapping and data visualization techniques to genealogical data is limited. This paper aims to fill this research gap by providing a systematic framework and process guidance for practitioners seeking to uncover hidden knowledge from genealogy.

Based on a literature review of genealogy's current knowledge reasoning research, the authors constructed an integrated framework for knowledge inference and visualization application using a knowledge graph. Additionally, the authors applied this framework in a case study using “Manchu Clan Genealogy” as the data source.

The case study shows that the proposed framework can effectively decompose and reconstruct genealogy. It demonstrates the reasoning, discovery, and web visualization application process of implicit information in genealogy. It enhances the effective utilization of Manchu genealogy resources by highlighting the intricate relationships among people, places, and time entities.

This study proposed a framework for genealogy knowledge reasoning and visual analysis utilizing a knowledge graph, including five dimensions: the target layer, the resource layer, the data layer, the inference layer, and the application layer. It helps to gather the scattered genealogy information and establish a data network with semantic correlations while establishing reasoning rules to enable inference discovery and visualization of hidden relationships.