Justin Paul, Jane Menzies, Ambika Zutshi and Huifen Cai
This paper aims to identify and discuss new and novel business paradigms in China and India. In addition, this study examines the new business environment in those countries (2020…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify and discuss new and novel business paradigms in China and India. In addition, this study examines the new business environment in those countries (2020 onwards) in the context of COVID 19 and explores the challenges and opportunities in the post COVID period.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on content analysis, this study discusses contemporary topics such as innovation, exports, foreign direct investment, technology, social capital, board independence as part of corporate governance and explores novel themes such as consumer behaviour in regard to luxury brands and women entrepreneurship in an emerging country context in this paper.
Findings
It was found that there are several novel paradigms in the context of China and India. A paradigm shift in diplomatic relations has taken place as an aftermath of COVID-19 in the world.
Originality/value
This paper explores most of the unique dimensions of new and novel paradigms in the context of China and India.
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Agyenim Boateng, Huifen Cai, Daniel Borgia, Xiao Gang Bi and Franklin Nnaemeka Ngwu
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of internal corporate governance mechanisms on the capital structure decisions of Chinese-listed firms.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of internal corporate governance mechanisms on the capital structure decisions of Chinese-listed firms.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a large and more recent data set consisting of 2,386 Chinese-listed firms over the period from 1998 to 2012, the authors use different statistical methods (OLS, fixed effects and system GMM) to analyse the effects of firm-specific and corporate governance influences on capital structure.
Findings
The authors find that the proportion of independent directors and ownership concentration exert significant influence on the level of Chinese long-term debt ratios after controlling for firm-specific determinants and split share reforms. Further analysis separating the sample of this paper into state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and privately owned enterprises (POEs) suggests that ownership concentration in the hands of the state leads to decrease in debt ratios.
Research limitations/implications
The finding implies that concentrated ownership in the hands of the state appears more efficient compared to their private counterparts in their monitoring role.
Originality/value
This paper extends prior literature, which has concentrated disproportionately on firm-specific influences on capital structure, to the effects of within-firm governance mechanisms on capital structure decisions. The paper contributes to the agency theory–capital structure discourse in an emerging country context where corporate governance system appears weak.
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Yang Sun, Helen Huifen Cai, Rui Su and Qianhui Shen
The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the configurations of short life cycle, low quality, design and price, influence customer purchase intention in fast fashion and high…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the configurations of short life cycle, low quality, design and price, influence customer purchase intention in fast fashion and high technology industries in China.
Design/methodology/approach
The traditional thinking is that products with high quality and low price will win more customers. However, the authors can notice that high quality products usually have high cost. Therefore, it is necessary to do more research on how customers can accept low quality products. The authors take fast fashion products and smart phones as empirical studies, collecting data from customer’s online survey. Based on the methodology of fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis, the authors analyse the relationship between the factors of short life cycle, low quality, design and price and influence customer purchase intention.
Findings
The authors find that price is the most important influencing factor. Low price is a strong competitive factor in the market. As to low quality products, low price can be achieved relatively more easily than with high quality products, resulting from relatively poorer raw material or configurations. Hence the connection between quality and price may give an idea to enterprises that customers will accept low quality products with low price. Moreover, according to the research, different generations are equally affected by the low price condition, regardless of customer gender and household income.
Research limitations/implications
Because the study only focuses on fast fashion and smart phones industries, future work needs to replicate this study with individual data for different industries and with alternative methods to reinforce the confidence in the research. Meanwhile , this research studied mainly the customer perspective, it would be desirable to extend the study to the enterprise perspective and find out the difficulties that limit them in using low quality products to meet market needs. This may revel some cultural differences in purchase behavior among different countries and the discussed industries can be expanded to a larger area.
Practical implications
The study offers a number of managerial implications. With the rapid changes in people’s aesthetic sense and developing high-tech, it is more and more necessary for companies to think about how to win more customers and earn more profits. Low quality products have advantages as they will lower companies’ costs in many dimensions, improving the speed of supply. It helps firms to take low quality products into consideration and think whether they will influence different aspects of the company assistance firms to get a deeper understanding of customer psychology and make better decisions on their products.
Originality/value
The paper fills the gap in the research field by exploring how consumer behavior is affected by different conditions.
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Yang Sun, Wenmei Ding, Chen Weng, Isaac Cheah and Helen Huifen Cai
The purpose of the study is to construct a relationship model between the consumer resistance to innovation (CRI) and innovation adoption, and the study selected the customer…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the study is to construct a relationship model between the consumer resistance to innovation (CRI) and innovation adoption, and the study selected the customer loyalty as the moderating variable.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on questionnaire survey and regression model analysis, the study analyses the psychological processes and formation mechanisms that they either resist or adopt innovation by exploring users' attitudes towards smartphone application updates.
Findings
The results showed that innovation resistance negatively affected innovation adoption, and consumers are more likely to adopt innovations simply under the influence of customer loyalty. In addition, the moderating effect of customer loyalty is different in that how the three dimensions of innovation resistance influence innovation adoption. From the perspective of affective response, when consumers become emotionally disgusted with innovative products, loyalty can hardly change their minds. When consumers' resistance to innovation comes more from cognitive evaluation or functioning, loyalty is more likely to change their resistance.
Originality/value
The paper tests mechanism between customer resist the new product and new product adoption and the moderate effect of customer loyalty.
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Kaouther Kooli, Huifen Cai, Xiaoyun Tang, Cornelia Beer and Len Tiu Wright
While the topic of “umbrella branding” strategies for manufacturers’ products in the business-to-business literature has received attention, much less has been written about…
Abstract
Purpose
While the topic of “umbrella branding” strategies for manufacturers’ products in the business-to-business literature has received attention, much less has been written about umbrella branding strategies in the hospitality industry. With the aid of a theoretical framework, this paper aims to explore three types of behavioural characteristics: alliance attribute, communication behaviour and alliance management, to examine cost and service benefits for alliance success within one umbrella organisation in the German hospitality industry. The theoretical framework of the paper built on the model of Vanpoucke and Vereecke (2012), incorporating a top management perspective to test and extend an umbrella brand.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews with a sample of senior managers were carried out in Germany at the headquarters of Ringhotels e.V. Content analysis of the data collected was implemented to increase understanding of the research phenomenon with regard to relationships and the conceptual framework applied. The results were presented in the tables with discussions about the qualitative research.
Findings
The results of the study showed that behavioural characteristics played a significant role in explaining overall alliance success on cost and service benefits. A good level of quality presented in Ringhotels’ services, marketing, risk and coordination was found to be a better predictor of success when absence of management and lack of trust hampered good performance.
Originality/value
The study offers insights into the management of relationships within Ringhotels e.V. and how these can be better managed. The main contribution of the work fills in a gap currently existing in the literature about umbrella branding within the hospitality industry.
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Xiaolong Li, Lin Tian, Liang Han and Helen (Huifen) Cai
The purpose of this paper is to use samples from Chinese-listed companies to investigate the effects of interest rate deregulation and earnings transparency on company’s capital…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to use samples from Chinese-listed companies to investigate the effects of interest rate deregulation and earnings transparency on company’s capital structure in China over the period of 2003–2015. In particular, the authors study the link between state-owned enterprises (SOEs), economic growth targets and marketization in China’s unique institutional context.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the methodology of quantitative analysis, the authors use baseline and cluster analysis for all samples with full set of controls, for robustness tests of alternative proxy of interest rate control by using a cluster analysis at the firm level, regarding endogeneity tests conducted fixed effect model with adding instrument variables (IV), two-period factors regression method via IV and system generalized method of moments for dynamic analysis.
Findings
The results show that earnings transparency increases firm leverage and the additional tests suggest that such an effect takes place via a mechanism by reducing the cost of debt finance. However, information transparency could moderate the effects of interest rate deregulation on corporate capital structure. In addition, it finds that SOEs are less sensitive toward the changes of interest rates in China because lending to SOEs is policy-oriented and lacks of market evaluation of business risk. Government control is conducive to enhancing the transparency of the whole industry; however, market-oriented reform is conducive to enhancing the transparency of the company’s own information.
Research limitations/implications
The paper makes contribution to the relationship between earnings disclosure quality and capital structure in the Chinese unique institutional context, such as taking the progressive interest rate reform, SOES, different economic growth target and different marketization level in each province of China. The authors suggest that investors will pay more attention to the company’s own unique information transparency in the provinces with a high degree of marketization. As a potential direction for future research, the authors will investigate how the earnings transparency has impact on capital structure, and how such impact would depend on the transparency of specific business, the cap of foreign shareholding and the convenience of investment.
Practical implications
This research would be the target of banking market reform in order to bring a fair financing environment for all businesses in China. It implies that current experiment of interest rate liberalization in China is not as efficient as it could be in allocating funds across all businesses. State banks, SOEs and local governments are still the biggest players on both the demand and supply sides of the Chinese credit markets.
Social implications
The social implication of this paper lies in the fact that first, it provides additional evidence on the effect of market-oriented reforms through how the information transparency interacts with the financial decisions making of corporations. Second, it offers policy implication to banking market deregulation in China.
Originality/value
The paper makes contribution to the relationship between earnings disclosure quality and capital structure in the Chinese unique institutional context. This research tests the existing literature, such as Francis et al. (2004) and Zhang and Lu (2007), and suggests that informationally transparent firms have a higher debt ratio and lower effective interest costs on bank loans. In addition, this paper further explores the role played by interest rate deregulation in corporate finance, and in turn market fund allocation. This paper sheds new light on information transparency and explores the relationship between earnings disclosure quality and debt financing behaviors of Chinese publicly listed companies over the period of 2003–2015.
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Walter Mswaka, Teodósio Armindo dos Santos de Sousa, Huifen Cai and Margie Louws
This study aims to analyse the development of social enterprises in the UK, in the context of the increased need for creative solutions to ameliorate deprivation and deliver…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyse the development of social enterprises in the UK, in the context of the increased need for creative solutions to ameliorate deprivation and deliver effective public services.
Design/methodology/approach
The investigation draws on a mixed method approach from a postal survey of 102 social enterprises complemented by detailed analysis of two selected cases and key informant interviews.
Findings
The results of the study show that there is a paradigm shift in the practice and conceptualisation of social enterprises in South Yorkshire, as they are increasingly taking a more corporate approach to achieve their outcomes.
Research limitations/implications
The study is limited to social enterprises in South Yorkshire, UK. Further comparative analysis in other regions and social contexts is required to explore if these results are widely applicable.
Practical implications
This study is of potential benefit to researchers and those involved in formulating policies for the development and support of social enterprise.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the extant literature by investigation of the development of social enterprise in competitive markets, which is an area that requires further academic scrutiny. The South Yorkshire region presents an interesting case that extends our understanding of the operations of social enterprises in the UK, given the high levels of deprivation because of the steady decline of its industrial base (Bache and Chapman, 2008).