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This paper aims to investigate the curvilinear effects of firms’ market learning on radical innovation and the moderation effects of the focal firms’ horizontal ties and vertical ties.

This study uses regression analysis with the survey data from 303 Chinese firms.

Explorative/exploitative market learning has an inverted U-shaped/U-shaped effect on radical innovation. The effects of explorative market learning on radical innovation increase when firms have strong horizontal ties, but decrease when firms have strong vertical ties. The opposite is true for the effects of exploitative market learning.

This study uses unilateral data to examine the moderation effects of the focal firms’ vertical and horizontal ties on the market learning-radical innovation links. Future research that conducted in the dyadic-paradigm would be preferable to test the generalizability of this research and address the potential changes.

The value of the current study centers on its integrated framework that incorporates organizational learning theory and the social network perspective to account for radical innovation. The integrative view helps us to interpret the curvilinear effects of market learning on radical innovation and outlines the moderation mechanisms of horizontal ties and vertical ties.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how boundary-spanning demand-side search (BSDSS) fuels radical technological innovations as well as how innovation appropriability moderates this relationship. In particular, based on Teece’s (1986) argument regarding the appropriability of innovation, the authors divide factors to influence innovation appropriability into two types: external institution related and internal capability related.

This study employs a survey methodology. Specifically, the authors collected a sample composed of 150 high-tech manufacturing Chinese firms.

Results show that BSDSS has a positive effect on radical technological innovations. Further, the authors find that dysfunctional competition and political ties negatively moderate the main effect, whereas firms’ legal and IPRs protection capabilities positively moderate the main effect.

One major limitation is that the findings are based on data derived from Chinese firms, which may limit the generalization of the findings.

The findings suggest that firms competing Chinese market, both Chinese and foreign firms, should actively leverage BSDSS to boost radical technological innovations. Chinese firms should pay attention to the negative roles of appropriability hazards originating from external institutional environment. Foreign firms in Chinese market should be cautious on potential dysfunctional competition from local competitors, such as imitation and intelligence property violation, and enhance appropriability through building internal capabilities, such as legal and IPRs capabilities.

The study highlights the crucial roles of BSDSS in radical technological innovations, as well as the moderating roles of innovation appropriability. These results provide new insights into the drivers of radical technological innovations.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of psychological needs in the association between individualism and internet addiction.

A mixed-method design was used by comprising of 602 college students’ (70.3 percent women) responses obtained through the Individualism-Collectivism Survey, New Needs Assessment Questionnaire, and Internet Addiction Scale. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to investigate the theoretical relationships among the constructs. Constant comparative method was employed to analyze qualitative data that resulted from the transcription of semi-structured interviews with 12 field experts.

Quantitative results showed that individualism has a significant effect on internet addiction through affiliation, dominance, achievement, and autonomy (i.e. psychological needs). As students’ needs for dominance, achievement, and autonomy increased their internet addiction levels decreased. However, increase in the need of affiliation led to increase in the likelihood of internet addiction. Qualitative findings suggested alternative ways to satisfy psychological needs in socially more proper ways.

Psychological needs and internet addiction have long been investigated both independently and in relation to each other. However, the investigation of espoused culture (i.e. individualism) in relation to psychological needs and internet addiction is relatively recent. A review of the recent literature showed that an investigation of the mediating role of psychological needs in the effect of individualism on internet addiction is highly original. Moreover, initial quantitative results and follow-up qualitative findings help the authors understand psychological needs underlying internet addiction and suggest socially more appropriate means to satisfy these needs. Findings have theoretical values for researchers as well as practical values for those who work with students.

The author argues and explains that the indigenous Eastern epistemological frame of yin-yang balancing can be taken as a unique system of thinking toward a meta-perspective. It is not only deeply rooted in the indigenous Eastern culture traditions, but also bears salient global implications, especially in the domain of paradox management. The purpose and contribution of this chapter are twofold: (1) to explain the unique and salient features of yin-yang balancing (the “either/and” system to reframe paradox into duality as partially conflicting and partially complementary, both spatially and temporarily) as compared with the Western logic systems (the “either/or” and “both/or” or “both/and” systems); and (2) to explore the global implications of the “either/and” system for future paradox research, including the three unique themes of overlap between opposites with the “seed” of one opposite inside the other; threshold from the contingent balance between partial separation and partial integration in line with specific contexts through three operating mechanisms, and knot for the special role of third-party to shift paradox from a dyadic level to a triadic and even a multiplex level.

The purpose of this study is to reconcile the positive, non-significant and even negative effects of guanxi on firm performance from two aspects. First, it explores the linear and curvilinear relationships between guanxi and distinct performance dimensions. Second, it examines the moderating effects of both exchange-related behavioral risk (reflected by contract enforcement in this study) and market-related environmental risk (reflected by market turbulence in this study) on the above relationship.

Based on data for 206 samples collected from distributors of house furnishings, computers and their components, a moderated regression is used to test the hypotheses.

The empirical test generally supports the conceptual model and demonstrates three findings. First, guanxi has a linear, positive effect on financial performance and an inverted U-shaped effect on strategic performance. Second, contract enforcement decreases the effect of guanxi on financial performance and enhances its effect on strategic performance. Third, market turbulence enhances the effect of guanxi on financial performance and weakens its effect on strategic performance.

First, this study collects data only from China. Future studies should collect data from other emerging markets to allow for either model validation or cross-country comparisons. Second, the data come only from buyers, and suppliers’ viewpoints are not included. Third, in addition to contract enforcement and market turbulence, other important contingencies should be considered in the guanxi–performance link.

The results provide important implications for managers to manage guanxi in an emerging economy. Managers should be very clear about their primary goal (i.e. pursuing short-term financial revenue or long-term strategic targets); next, they should understand how to match guanxi with various levels of contract enforcement and market turbulence to achieve that goal.

First, prior research has documented guanxi’s role in channel relationships, but it has not achieved consistent conclusions. Second, although existing studies have analyzed the contingencies of guanxi at the firm level, market level and institutional level, another important contingency “the dyadic relationship condition” is rarely considered. Third, although the extant research has realized the value of guanxi contingent on various market conditions, conflicting views exist. This study contributes by addressing these issues.

Engineering system design and optimization problems are usually multi-objective and constrained and have uncertainties in the inputs. These uncertainties might significantly degrade the overall performance of engineering systems and change the feasibility of the obtained solutions. This paper aims to propose a multi-objective robust optimization approach based on Kriging metamodel (K-MORO) to obtain the robust Pareto set under the interval uncertainty.

In K-MORO, the nested optimization structure is reduced into a single loop optimization structure to ease the computational burden. Considering the interpolation uncertainty from the Kriging metamodel may affect the robustness of the Pareto optima, an objective switching and sequential updating strategy is introduced in K-MORO to determine (1) whether the robust analysis or the Kriging metamodel should be used to evaluate the robustness of design alternatives, and (2) which design alternatives are selected to improve the prediction accuracy of the Kriging metamodel during the robust optimization process.

Five numerical and engineering cases are used to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach. The results illustrate that K-MORO is able to obtain robust Pareto frontier, while significantly reducing computational cost.

The proposed approach exhibits great capability for practical engineering design optimization problems that are multi-objective and constrained and have uncertainties.

A K-MORO approach is proposed, which can obtain the robust Pareto set under the interval uncertainty and ease the computational burden of the robust optimization process.

One of the agency conflicts between investors and managers in fund management is reflected by risk‐taking behaviors led by their different goals. The investors may stop their investments in risky assets before the end of the investment horizon to minimize risk, while the managers may do so to entrench their reputation so as to pursue better opportunities in the labor market. This study aims to consider a one principal‐one agent model to investigate this agency conflict.

The paper derives optimal asset allocation strategies for both parties by extending the traditional dynamic mean‐variance model and considering possibilities of optimal early stopping. Doing so illustrates the principal‐agent conflict regarding risk‐taking behaviors and managerial investment myopia in fund management.

This paper not only paves the way for further studies along this line, but also presents results useful for practitioners in the money management industry.

According to the theoretical analysis and numerical simulations, the paper shows that potential early stop can make the agency conflict worsen, and it proposes a way to mitigate this agency problem.

As one of the exploratory studies in investigating agency conflict regarding risk‐taking behaviors in the literature, this study makes multiple contributions to the literature on fund management, asset allocation, portfolio optimization, and risk management.

In the absence of well-developed, formal institutional frameworks, informal network-based strategies have been argued to be especially viable in emerging economies. However, some empirical research has challenged these earlier theoretical arguments. In light of new evidence, this chapter develops a contingency perspective differentiating firms' networks as strong ties and weak ties. It suggests that while strong-tie networks are typically found during the early phase of institutional transitions, weak-tie networks are more likely to be developed and leveraged during the late phase of transitions. The upshot is that as the performance benefits of strong ties decline during institutional transitions, emerging weak ties' impact on firm performance is likely to increase.