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This paper aims to explore the extent to which unionized employees are dissatisfied in Chinese Enterprise Trade Unions (CETUs) when they perceive high levels of the triple-role conflicts, as well as whether rights expectations will moderate these relationships. The authors define CETUs' triple-role conflicts as the extent to which CETUs and their cadres prioritize fulfilling the roles of preserving social stability (“peace”) and/or maintaining the production order (“production”) over protecting worker's rights and interests (“workers” rights).

Pilot study developed the scales via both qualitative and quantitative studies, which include item generation using the transcript of individual interviews with 36 informants, and exploratory factor analyses with 106 respondents. The study used a sample of 327 employees from more than 20 firms in North and Southwest China.

Results indicate high reliability and validity of the scales and provide largely consistent supports for our hypotheses: three dimensions of triple-role conflicts are negatively related to employees' satisfaction in CETUs, and rights expectations moderate these relationships.

This study developed three scales to respectively measure CETUs' triple-role conflicts, rights expectation and satisfaction in CETUs. More importantly, the findings shed light on the moderating mechanism of rights expectation in the relationships between triple-role conflicts and satisfaction in CETUs.

This paper aims to explore why some Chinese subordinates will engage in building guanxi with their supervisor while others will not. The authors conceptualize subordinates’ initiative behaviors which aim at building up or improving guanxi with their supervisors through social interactions as supervisor–subordinate guanxi (SSG)-building behaviors. Guided by the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study examines how three psychological antecedents (guanxi orientation as attitude, individual perception of group-level guanxi practice as subjective norm and person–supervisor [P-S] fit perception as perceived control) independently and interactively predict subordinates’ SSG-building behaviors.

The authors used a sample of 162 supervisor–subordinate dyads from four enterprises located in Southwest China.

Results indicated that P-S fit perception is most strongly related to subordinates’ SSG-building behaviors, followed by guanxi orientation and individual perception of group-level guanxi practice perception. Guanxi orientation is also found to strengthen the positive effect of P-S fit perception on subordinates’ SSG-building behaviors.

The authors’ findings shed light on the psychological mechanisms of Chinese subordinates’ behaviors to build up or improve guanxi with their supervisors, and advance the current understanding of SSG development from a planned behavioral perspective.

Small talk, often regarded as a superficial interaction unrelated to work, is a pervasive and inescapable aspect of daily life and professional settings. In China, where the notion of guanxi – the cultivation of strategic relationships – is deeply valued, workplace small talk (WST) is a strategic tool used by employees to strengthen their interpersonal networks. This study aims to investigate the positive impact of WST on task performance within the Chinese workplace and explores the mechanisms underpinning this relationship.

This study adopted a time-lagged research design to test its hypotheses using data from 516 employees across various Chinese firms.

This study revealed that WST exerts both direct and indirect positive effects on task performance. It boosts task performance indirectly via two mediators: relational energy and positive affect. This study also delineated a chain mediation model wherein WST sequentially elevates task performance by first enhancing relational energy and then fostering positive affect.

Counter to the prevailing focus on the negative repercussions of WST, this study sheds light on its beneficial outcomes, proposing novel pathways connecting WST to task performance. These insights contribute to both academic discourse and the development of practical management strategies.

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of work-to-family conflict (WFC) on unethical pro-family behavior (UPFB) and work engagement (WE) among Chinese female leaders. In addition, this study investigates the mediating role of work-to-family guilt (WFG) and the moderating role of family centrality (FC) in these relationships.

A quantitative approach was adopted, involving the collection of data through online questionnaires administered at three time points. These data were analyzed using hierarchical regression and the bootstrapping method to test the proposed hypotheses.

WFC exhibited a significant positive correlation with UPFB and a negative correlation with WE; WFG played a mediating role in the relationships between WFC and both UPFB and WE; and FC had a significant moderating effect on the relationship between WFC and WE.

This study sheds light on a model of WFC and its related effects, reveals how WFC affects UPFB and WE and uncovers the mediating role of WFG and the moderating role of FC; pays attention to a unique organizational behavior, UPFB, which enriches research on the antecedents influencing such behaviors; and examines Chinese female leaders in organizations, their current experience of WFC and the resulting psychological and behavioral outcomes.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of executives’ overseas education and work experience on enterprise digital as executives’ overseas background is critical to the development of enterprises. It also explored the mediating role of enterprise digital transformation on the relationship between executives’ overseas background and enterprise growth.

Chinese A-share companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges for the period 2018–2020 were analyzed using regression analysis and bootstrapping to verify hypothesized relationships.

Executives’ overseas study and work experience both enhanced enterprise digital transformation significantly, thus improving enterprise growth. The level of employee education moderated the mediating role proposed in the theoretical model. Moreover, the promoting effect of executives’ overseas background on enterprise digital transformation was more significant for non-state-owned enterprises and those in eastern China.

The findings provide reference for the formulation and optimization of companies’ human resource structure and have implications on the improvement of enterprise digital transformation and enterprise growth.

This study explored the factors influencing enterprise digital transformation at the microlevel of corporate human capital, thereby providing microlevel empirical evidence for research on the factors influencing enterprise digital transformation. Its findings shed light on the mechanism and context under which executives with overseas backgrounds may enhance enterprise digital transformation and growth.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze important theoretical work conducted in the research streams of coopetition dynamics and knowledge flows in the area of start-up entrepreneurship. The authors see in practice that venture capital (VC) firms are a highly essential component of the environment that gives birth to entrepreneurial ventures, helping them to grow profoundly. Interorganizational collaborations facilitate VC firms to be a beneficial partner because except for providing funding, they also possess knowledge-based resources to support the new business.

A systematic review of the literature was conducted, using relevant keywords and academic databases. Then, the backward search was implemented to examine the references of the selected papers, and finally, the forward search to explore the citations of the selected papers. After the selection of papers, they were classified according to their content. A thorough search of the extant literature was done in Scopus and Google Scholar using a combination of keywords such as coopetition, knowledge flows, VC firms, interorganizational and inter-firm knowledge dynamics.

This paper highlights the capability of venture capitalists and provides insights as to how knowledge transfer and sharing between VC firms affect new venture’s growth and prosperity.

This paper attempts to provide new perspectives and explore the significance of interorganizational coopetition and knowledge transfer and sharing between VC firms when they take part in the support and development of new ventures (e.g. start-ups). A theoretical model is proposed via the coopetition dynamics and inter-firm knowledge flows in the VC sector framework.

This paper adds to the existing theoretical knowledge and underlines the topic of interorganizational coopetition and knowledge flows between VC firms. This is the first attempt, on the one hand, to link inter-firm knowledge flows and new venture development, while on the other to examine the dynamics between VC firms and the collective contribution for the growth of start-ups.

The purpose of this paper is to explain how the lean six sigma (LSS) methodology can be implemented in a teaching context to positively impact the experience of both the instructor and student. The paper focuses on: describing the application of the LSS methodology in streamlining the grading process; reporting the findings; and examining possibility of deploying the LSS methodology in additional aspects in the education sector.

The observations presented in this paper stem from a small-scale case study of LSS implementation in an instructional context.

The implementation of LSS methodology allowed the authors to generate a feedback system that is focused, scaffolding and cumulative while meeting the goal of requiring less time to produce for the instructor.

This paper is based on an empirical study of a single process intervention with only a small sample in a single instructional context; therefore, the research results may lack generalizability. Further testing of the proposed propositions is encouraged.

The paper includes an analysis of current practice and implications for the deployment of DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve and control) method. A combination of lean and six sigma techniques were deployed in a post-secondary class setting to demonstrate how different techniques can be used to improve instructional processes.

This paper produces one more example for LSS implementation in an educational–instructional context for a small but growing base of literature.

The emergence and maturation of the social sciences is an important component of the expansion of institutions of higher learning in the 20th century. The discipline of Political Economy, increasingly institutionalized in various Canadian universities in the early decades of the century, secured a Chair at the University of Manitoba in 1909. After 1914, its title became “Political Economy and Political Science” and the department subsequently served “as the great mother department to which were attached newer social science disciplines until it was deemed appropriate to let them launch out on their own” (Pentland, 1977, p. 3). Political Science became independent in 1948, Geography in 1951, and Sociology and Anthropology in 1962 (p. 4). Agricultural Economics, which was taught in the Manitoba Agricultural College, became its own department when the college joined the university in 1924. In the 1930s, Agricultural Economics was absorbed into Department of Political Economy. However, according to Pentland (pp. 4–5) it was not until the late 1940s that agricultural economics became a significant “sub-department.” It subsequently separated itself from Political Economy and, in 1954, became an independent department in the Faculty of Agriculture (p. 5). The result of these disciplinary developments was that the faculty of the Department of Political Economy had, from time to time, members whose expertise lay outside the increasingly well-defined terrain of economics. Despite this, however, they did not seem to have any long-lasting direct impact on shaping and defining the curricula in Economics. Since these other disciplines left and became independent when they had reached a certain size or degree of influence, Economics was left to define and pursue its own agenda unencumbered by the needs of these former associates.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

A previous paper in this journal discussed how to estimate the appropriate rate that should be used to evaluate investment projects. In this paper, the same theme is extended to discuss why projects might attract hurdle rates that are higher than the cost of capital. The answer involves discussion of the topic of real options, which may provide a rigorous explanation of how companies can value flexibility in capital budgeting. This paper discusses the gap between the hurdle rate and the cost of capital and explores possible explanations for the rational use of additional barriers before accepting capital projects.