Hong Hu, Qiang Wang and Jixiang Chen
Why do some small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) explore more while others exploit further? What are the driving forces of their exploratory and exploitative innovation…
Abstract
Purpose
Why do some small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) explore more while others exploit further? What are the driving forces of their exploratory and exploitative innovation? These are intriguing questions worthy of in-depth research. The purpose of this paper is to crack these problems from both objective (i.e. organizational slack) and subjective (i.e. market orientation) perspectives. Specifically, the paper examines the effects of unabsorbed and absorbed slack on exploratory and exploitative innovation and the mediating roles played by proactive and responsive market orientation.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected data from 214 SMEs in several industries of China. These businesses were located in the city of Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the southeastern part of China. The survey method was used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Results reveal that unabsorbed and absorbed slack could affect exploratory and exploitative innovation. Proactive and responsive market orientation are related to unabsorbed and absorbed slack, exploratory and exploitative innovation, and they play the roles of mediators in two sets of the relationships.
Research limitations/implications
This research presents several profound insights for venture capitalists regarding to making investment decisions and for the entrepreneurs of SMEs in terms of how much resource slack they should gain and retain to reach intended level of exploratory and exploitative innovation. Some of the limitations of this study relate to the single respondent in each firm, lack of examination on relevant contextual factors and potential moderators.
Originality/value
This study addresses the gaps in the literature by exploring the mechanisms underlying the effects of different kinds of organizational slack on the two elements of ambidextrous innovation in non-large-scale businesses in a non-Western cultural setting.
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Weigang Li, Jixiang Chen and Dongying Wu
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of legal institution building during the process of China's economic miracle of past three decades.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of legal institution building during the process of China's economic miracle of past three decades.
Design/methodology/approach
To engage with the issue, the paper builds on historical research and comparable approaches which explore the interactions of legal institution building and economic reforms in China.
Findings
Legal institution building is not only a passive factor that can make up market failures in developing countries. Studies on China case find that legal institution building in China has often been taken as a tool to realize the ruling party's political commitment of economic development.
Research limitations/implications
The paper takes only one country – China as the case to explore the interactions of legal institution building and economic development. Owing to most China's peculiar characteristics, more cases should be studied in order to examine a much clearer result, which might shed lights on the current reforms of a lot of developing countries.
Practical implications
The argument of the paper, that legal institution building can be employed as an active tool to drive economic development if designed properly, broadens policy pools for developing countries that are in a strive to fight against poverty reduction.
Originality/value
The paper opens a new arena to re‐examine the role of legal building for economic development in developing countries. Also, it develops a unique perspective to explore the myth of China's economic miracle.
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Hong Hu, Qinxuan Gu and Jixiang Chen
The present research attempts to review literature on the effects of transformational leadership on organizational creativity and innovation. It is well recognized that…
Abstract
Purpose
The present research attempts to review literature on the effects of transformational leadership on organizational creativity and innovation. It is well recognized that organizational creativity and innovation are crucial for an organization and even for the whole society. Transformational leadership exerts great impact on organizational creativity and innovation. With the increase of empirical studies, relevant variables and research findings are from all kinds of perspectives. The purpose of this paper is to sort relevant works out, incorporate them into an overarching framework and suggest a few future directions which are both critical and viable, so that future researchers may easily find the “gap” and fit their prospective works properly.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is conducted by first perusing recent and major papers on the subject which have been published on high quality journals. The paper sorts out pivotal mediators and moderators, and sheds light on the their effects.
Findings
Although the conclusions drawn from different studies are somewhat inconsistent, most scholars found a positive relationship between transformational leadership and organizational creativity and innovation. Transformational leadership can influence organizational creativity and innovation both directly and indirectly. The bulk of this paper is about the indirect effects of transformational leadership. The mediators and moderators are from different levels including individual, team and organizational level. In addition, some contextual variables are also included.
Originality/value
The paper is the first to review the literature by focusing on the effects of transformational leadership on organizational creativity and innovation. It incorporates various factors into a whole framework which covers three levels and includes internal and external contexts. It makes the relevant findings clear, points out the strengths and weaknesses of the extant literature. It also brings forward future research directions which can be a valuable reference for other researchers.
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Xuemei Wang, Jixiang He, Yue Ma, Hudie Zhao, Dongdong Zhang and Liang Yang
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the tea stem natural dye was extracted from tea stem waste and applied to dyeing silk fiber, after which the properties of dyed samples…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the tea stem natural dye was extracted from tea stem waste and applied to dyeing silk fiber, after which the properties of dyed samples were tested and analyzed.
Design/methodology/approach
The dyeing process was optimized using the response surface methodology (RSM) approach. Dyeing temperature, pH and time were chosen as variables and the color difference value as a response. The properties of dyed samples were tested and analyzed.
Findings
The optimized dyeing process was as follows: dyeing temperature 70°C, pH 3.5 and time 110 min. The K/S and color difference value of silk fiber dyed with the optimal process dye enzymatic oxidation with laccase was 1.4 and 27.8, respectively. The silk fiber dyed has excellent color fastness, antioxidant and antibacterial property, which greatly increases the added value of the dyed products. Furthermore, the optimized dyeing process did not significantly affect the strength properties and handle of the silk fiber.
Originality/value
Researchers have not used statistical analysis to optimize the process of dyeing process of silk fiber by tea stem natural dye enzymatic oxidation with laccase using response surface methodology. Additionally, this dyeing process was a low-temperature dyeing process, which not only saves energy consumption and reduces silk fiber damage but also obtains superbly dyeing results and biological functional properties, achieve the effects of waste utilization and clean dyeing.
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Yupeng Mou, Yali Ma, Duanyang Guo and Zhihua Ding
With the development of e-commerce network platforms, platform enterprises have mostly completed the first stage of user accumulation during the start-up period. How to enhance…
Abstract
Purpose
With the development of e-commerce network platforms, platform enterprises have mostly completed the first stage of user accumulation during the start-up period. How to enhance users’ stickiness and stimulate their continual participation in platform business activities through innovation and platform design has become a decisive factor for platform enterprises. To increase the motivation of e-commerce platform users, this paper explores the positive impact of gamified rewards on platform user stickiness by dividing the gamified rewards design into social and functional rewards, and studies the mediating role of self-identification and the moderating role of perceived goal progress and information disclosure.
Design/methodology/approach
This study applies the “S-O-R” (stimulus–organism–response) model as the theoretical basis for constructing a model of user stickiness for e-commerce platforms and subdivides gamified reward design into social rewards and functional rewards to explore how they affect platform user stickiness and the boundaries of the influencing mechanism.
Findings
It turns out both types of gamified rewards promote users’ perception of self-identification, which in turn affects the intention to continue using the platform. In addition, platforms with designs about users’ quantified self-behavior – perceived goal progress in the gaming experience can effectively enhance the effectiveness of users’ gamification rewards. Information disclosure moderates the relationship between the two types of gamification design and self-identification. For functional reward designs and social reward designs, information disclosure can improve users’ self-identification and therefore enhance users’ stickiness.
Originality/value
This study verifies the impact of gamification design on platform user stickiness, confirming the mediating role of self-identification and the moderating role of perceived goal progress and information disclosure, which has theoretical and practical implications for how platform enterprise can maintain user activity in the digital context.