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Digital transformation (DT) has great potential to improve operations and stimulate business growth. It has attracted widespread attention from businesses around the world. However, firm performance in DT implementation (DTI) cannot be neglected. This study examines the benefits and costs of DT and its effects on operations and financial performance of DT.

Based on the financial report data from S&P 500 firms, we measure the financial performance, productivity and market value of DTI with a baseline in 2020. In addition, we collect secondary data to construct linear regression models for three dummy variables, including DT adopters, first movers and better performers.

Empirical results demonstrate that digitally transformed firms are positively correlated with business performance, while the performance among first movers has a partially positive impact. DT has also had a significant impact on long-term performance as shown by our long-term observations. Empirical findings indicate that DT has varying impacts on organizational performance in different dimensions and provides DT target-setting guidance to enterprises.

There are no studies so far that could proffer certain evidence to reveal the influence of DTI on firm performance. Such evidence is necessary for managers to convince their investors and stakeholders to believe that DTI can create new revenue for enterprises.

This paper aims to use stakeholder theory and the guanxi perspective to examine the determining factors of water resources information disclosure among Chinese enterprises in the context of authoritarian and normative pressures.

Content analysis is first applied to analyze the environmental sustainability reports of the sample enterprises from 2010 to 2017. Afterward, logistic regression analysis is used to analyze the coded data and examine the proposed hypotheses.

The empirical evidence shows that having the state as the largest shareholder is positively, but not significantly, related to disclosure of water resources information. Water-sensitive industries are positively and significantly related to the disclosure of water resources information. Guanxi is negatively related to disclosure of water resources information, but not to the level of significance. The effect of the interaction term (Guanxi × Large) on disclosure is negative and also significant.

It is necessary for enterprises to build environmental awareness, increase information transparency for better communication with stakeholders and also establish accountability mechanisms. For effective disclosure and higher information transparency, the Chinese Government should take measures to avoid the disruption of guanxi and ensure effective enforcement of laws.

Industrial organizations or supervisory institutions are advised to encourage firms to build awareness of water-related risks and environmental sustainability and to improve how they disclose water resources information to stakeholders.

This study offers evidence of the determining factors of water resources information disclosure, a topic that has been rarely studied before. The evidence sheds light on how firms, especially those in China, have dealt with disclosure of water resources information in the context of authoritarian and normative pressures.

Awe is an essential post-experience assessment; nevertheless, few studies have discussed its role in the field of outdoor sports or outdoor sports tourism. In this study, the authors aim to examine the effects of awe on participants' satisfaction and behavioral intention by considering the perceived vastness of the natural environment, perceived professionalism, and self-image congruity as drivers.

The authors proposed and empirically tested a research model based on a survey with 480 responses collected in China. The effect of awe is explored from the perspectives of both sufficiency logic and necessity logic by applying the combined use of partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and necessary condition analysis (NCA).

The results show that the perceived vastness of the natural environment, perceived professionalism and self-image congruity are sufficient conditions for awe: these factors affect awe positively, which, in turn, positively affect satisfaction and behavioral intention. Furthermore, both the perceived vastness of the natural environment and perceived professionalism represent a necessary condition for awe. Awe acts as a necessary and sufficient condition for both participants' satisfaction and behavioral intention.

The results of this study suggest that the generation of awe can be used as a business strategy to influence outdoor sports participants' choices in practice. In addition to the unique natural environment, professional exercising and self-realization are key success factors in enhancing the positive evaluations of outdoor sports participants.

This study is a first attempt to identify the role of awe in outdoor sports activities. Methodologically, it provides a paradigm for the combined use of PLS-SEM and NCA in sports management research by identifying the necessary and sufficient effects of awe on outdoor sports participants' post-experience evaluation.

Using consumption value theory, this study aims to examine the impact of tourists’ perceived consumption value dimensions of tea beverages offered by Hong Kong (HK)-style cafés, including taste value, price value, health value and emotional value, on tourists’ memorable experience (ME), satisfaction and revisit intention.

Using an online survey, this study collected 225 usable data from tourists who had experience in visiting HK-style cafés. Partial least squares–structural equation modelling was used to examine the importance of tourists’ value dimensions, including taste value, price value, health value and emotional value, on tourists’ ME, satisfaction and revisit intention.

The results revealed that taste value, price value, health value and emotional value are significant predictors of tourists’ ME in HK-style cafés, which in turn drive their satisfaction and revisit intention.

This study focusses on a single context: HK-style cafés. Future research may enhance the generalisability of the findings by replicating the model in other countries with diverse cultures.

Tourism marketers may strengthen tourists’ ME, satisfaction and revisit intention by promoting tea beverages as well as HK-style cafés. Tourism marketers are recommended to communicate taste value, price value, health value and emotional value of HK-style tea beverages, which in turn encourages tourists to learn about the features of tea beverages. Subsequently, it drives tourists’ ME and satisfaction, thereby strengthening their intention to revisit.

This study contributes to the tourism marketing literature by providing an understanding of the role of tea beverage value in driving tourists’ ME, satisfaction and revisit intention. By empirically testing a research model, this study confirms that specific consumption value elements of tea beverages, namely, taste value, price value, health value and emotional value, are critical drivers in driving tourists’ ME, satisfaction and revisit intention.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships among leader-member exchange (LMX) quality, social interaction, and the effectiveness of knowledge transfer.

This study used a paired questionnaire to collect 209 valid sets of paired data, consisting of responses from 37 Taiwanese supervisors and their 209 Chinese subordinates at 35 Taiwanese manufacturing firms located in Mainland China. The proposed hypotheses were tested with the application of a two-step approach of PLS-SEM analysis.

The results of this study showed that LMX quality and social interaction are positively associated with effective knowledge transfer, and most importantly, it found that social interaction between Taiwanese managers and their subordinates has a full mediating effect on this relationship.

The data were collected from a dyad supervisor-subordinate relationship; thus, future research is encouraged to collect data from peer co-worker relationships. The findings, however, suggested that organizations should provide a supportive environment where a good supervisor-subordinate relationship can be created for the enhancement of knowledge transfer.

The study suggested that managers should work to develop high-quality LMX relationships with their subordinates, as this can enhance social interaction among employees and facilitate more effective knowledge transfer.

The paper applied a four-level training evaluation model to assess the effectiveness of knowledge transfer which has never been done before, and found that both LMX quality and social interaction affect how well individuals can acquire knowledge.

Although scholars have paid considerable attention to the relationship between technological diversification and firm performance, research on this relationship has produced mixed findings. To reconcile these inconsistent findings, this study, thus, aims to revisit the performance effect of technological diversification by considering two organizational characteristics as crucial moderators, namely, firm size and financial slack.

To test the research hypotheses, the research sample covers manufacturing firms in the 2008 Standard & Poor (S&P) 500 index. Data regarding the characteristics and patent information of the sample firms were obtained from Compustat and the US Patent and Trademark Office. The hypotheses were tested by using hierarchical regression models.

In a sample of 168 S&P 500 manufacturing firms, this study finds that technological diversification has a positive effect on firm performance. The relationship between technological diversification and firm performance is also found to be positively moderated by firm size, financial slack and their configuration.

The findings of this study further suggest that firms should be aware that the effect of technological diversification on performance can be enhanced or hindered in specific contexts.

Although a number of studies have researched food firms’ unethical practices, the mechanisms used to prevent these practices remain underexplored from the perspective of corporate governance. As independent directors (IDs) have been viewed as a mechanism to deter corporate misconducts, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the influences of the ratio of IDs on the board, IDs’ industrial experience and their participation in corporate governance training courses on food firms’ unethical production practices.

This study is based on a sample of 239 firm-year observations in Taiwanese food industries. The Poisson model with fixed effects was used to test the research hypotheses.

The results show that board independence and IDs with food industry expertise were not effective in deterring food firms from unethical production practices. The expected monitoring function of IDs would only realize when they complete a sufficient number of corporate governance training courses. These courses can make IDs aware of their responsibilities and roles in governing firms.

This study is the first to identify the effects of corporate governance practices on food firms’ unethical production practices. The value of this study may provide food firms practical solutions that enable corporate executives to behave ethically.

Prior research on user-generated content (UGC) contributions has primarily focused on self-centered or other-centered motives, paying limited attention to the concept of enlightened self-interest, in which both motives coexist in a single organism. Additionally, the factors influencing enlightened self-interest and their effects in different circumstances are yet to be explored. Drawing on theoretical lenses rooted in the switching barriers perspective and stimulus–organism–response framework, this study posits that dedication-based switching barriers (community–member relationship quality, member–member relationship quality, and content attractiveness) positively relate to enlightened self-interest, whereas constraint-based switching barriers (switching costs) moderate the relationship between dedication-based switching barriers and enlightened self-interest in social media communities (SMCs). Members' enlightened self-interest in turn influences both the creation and co-creation of UGC.

This study comprised two quantitative studies: an online survey-based study (Study 1) and an online scenario-based experiment (Study 2). Study 1 surveyed 613 respondents, while Study 2 included 749 participants. Both studies employed structural equation modeling and bootstrapping techniques for analysis.

The findings indicate that dedication-based switching barriers positively affect users' enlightened self-interest, which in turn is positively associated with UGC creation and co-creation. Switching costs moderate the relationship between relationship quality (community–member and member–member) and enlightened self-interest.

This study complements the current understanding of how the association between dedication- and constraint-based switching barriers and users' enlightened self-interests influence user-generated contributions.

The purpose of this paper is to present the use of artificial immune systems (AISs) to solve constrained design optimization problems for active magnetic bearings (AMBs).

This research applies the AIS approach, more specifically, a representative clonal selection-based AIS called CLONALG, to the single-objective structural design optimization of AMBs. In addition, when compared with a genetic algorithm (GA) developed in the previous work, the CLONALG fails to produce best solutions when a nearly zero feasible ratio occurs in an AMB design problem. Therefore, an AIS called ARISCO (AIS for constrained optimization) is proposed to address the above issue.

A total of six AMB design cases are solved by the GA, CLONALG, and ARISCO. Based on the simulation results, in terms of solution quality, the ARISCO is shown to have better overall performance than the CLONALG and GA. In particular, when solving a problem with a nearly zero feasible ratio, the ARISCO and GA perform equally and both outperform the CLONALG.

In summary, the contributions of this paper include: this research applies the AIS approach, more precisely, the CLONALG, to the single-objective structural design optimization of AMBs; the ARISCO overall produces better AMB designs than the CLONALG and a GA developed in the previous work; in situations where a nearly zero feasible ratio occurs, the ARISCO and GA perform equally, and they both outperform the CLONALG.

This paper aims to use the social impact hypothesis and the shift of focus hypothesis to examine what drives controversial industries to make philanthropic donations: sustainable development, which can in turn lead to higher firm performance or a better corporate image.

This study employed a sample of Chinese firms from 2008–2015 and conducted regression analysis to explore the motivations behind corporate philanthropy.

Philanthropic giving is positively and significantly related to all indicators of firm performance; the interaction term of controversial industries and philanthropic giving is also positively and significantly related to firm performance. The empirical evidence supports the social impact hypothesis.

The empirical evidence shows that firms engage in philanthropic giving, mainly in pursuit of their own interests. Hence, managers should consider the inherent characteristics of the company and then combine social interests with their economic interests to design a philanthropic strategy of their own, which can in turn contribute to sustainable development.

This paper empirically confirms that the social impact hypothesis holds for the philanthropic activities of Chinese firms. This is a rare finding in related studies.