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When developing a new product, a buying firm solicits revenue sharing bids from two competing suppliers. Bidding behaviors of suppliers do not always align with predictions from rational agent models due to task uncertainty and bounded rationality, which could result in non-optimal supplier offers and ultimately hurt buying firm interests. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned issues.

The authors built an analytical model that considers the impact of supplier technological risk, buyer–supplier coordination cost and supplier loss aversion on the optimal bid of the supplier. Next, using limited information processing capacity as a theoretic lens, the authors explore antecedents to the size of a focal supplier's bidding error, the absolute difference between the actual bid and the optimal bid. The authors used quantitative lab experimental data to test the hypotheses.

(1) Bounded rational bidders often fail to differentiate between relevant and irrelevant competitive information when placing bids, (2) loss aversion of a bidder significantly affects not only levels of bids, particularly for bidders with competitive disadvantages, but also sizes of the bidding error and (3) competitive information that has clearer performance implications are more influential in reducing sizes of bidding errors.

The results provide a comprehensive view of the bidding behaviors of a bounded rational supplier in an innovation outsourcing context with competition. With the results, managers now have a better understanding of behavioral influencers behind non-optimal supplier bids in an innovation outsourcing context.

This study investigates the extent to which structural equivalence between acquiring and target firms is associated with post-merger and acquisition (M&A) performance—a relationship that is proposed to be moderated by industry-level vertical relatedness between acquiring and target firms.

Applying social network analysis and regression, this study analyzes a buyer–supplier relationship network dataset of 279 M&A deals completed between 2010 and 2017 to test the hypotheses. Structural equivalence is measured as the proportion of common customers and suppliers between an acquiring firm and a target firm.

Supporting a view about the importance of supply chains in explaining M&As outcomes, the results suggest that the structural equivalence in the supplier network is positively associated with post-M&A firm performance. The results also show that the effect of the structural equivalence in the customer network is moderated by vertical relatedness between two merging firms (i.e. structural equivalence contributes to post-M&A performance when vertical industry relatedness is high).

This study contributes to the M&A and supply network literature by investigating the performance implications of structural equivalence in supplier and customer networks, demonstrating the importance of taking a supply chain view when explaining M&As outcomes. Specifically, the authors suggest considering structural equivalence as a new type of relatedness between merging firms (i.e. relatedness in network resources in explaining post-M&A performance). It also indicates how industry-level vertical resource relatedness, which is about relatedness in internal resources between the two firms, could interact with firm-level network resource relatedness, which is about relatedness in external supply chain resources between the two firms, in affecting post-M&A performance.

This study investigates the extent to which a firm’s centrality and autonomy in its supply network are associated with the intensity and complexity of its competitive actions.

Utilizing social network analysis and dynamic panel data models, this study analyzes a comprehensive panel dataset with 10,802 firm-year observations across various industries between 2011 and 2018 to test the hypotheses.

Our findings show that a firm’s level of centrality in its supply network has an inverted U-shaped relationship with both competitive intensity and competitive complexity. In addition, the turning points of these two inverted U-shaped relationships differ in that firms with a lower level of centrality tend to compete aggressively by launching more actions within fewer categories, while firms with a higher level of centrality tend to compete aggressively by launching fewer actions that cover a larger range of categories. Finally, we find that a firm’s structural autonomy has a positive relationship with competitive complexity.

This study bridges the gap between the supply chain management literature and strategic management literature and investigates how supply networks shape competitive aggressiveness. In particular, this research investigates how a firm’s structural position in its supply network affects its competitive actions, an important intermediate mechanism for competitive advantage that has been overlooked in the supply chain management literature.

This study aims to prepare thymol-based deep eutectic solvents (DESs) and use them as lubricates for friction and wear tests to simulate the wear conditions of hybrid bearings.

Through the characterization and analysis of the morphology of wear scars and the elemental composition of friction films, the tribological behavior and wear mechanism of sample materials as lubricants were investigated and the anti-wear mechanism of thymol-based DESs was discussed.

The findings demonstrate that because of the formation of a fluid lubrication film and excellent kinematic viscosity, the lubrication effect of the prepared DES is improved by about 50% compared to the base lubricating oil. The prepared [Ch]Cl-thymol DES has a better anti-friction and lubrication effect than citric-thymol, EG-thymol and urea-thymol DESs, with an average friction coefficient of about 0.04.

In this work, the friction reduction properties of thymol-based DESs were studied as lubricants for the first time, and the lubrication mechanism of sample materials was investigated.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the failure reasons and failure mechanism of the commercially pure titanium air conditioning condenser.

In this paper, chemical analysis, metallographic observation, visual examination and scanning electron microscope examination, corrosion products analysis and working conditions analysis were adopted for determining the reasons for the failure of the condenser.

The results indicated that TA2 titanium pipe perforation failure is caused by the synergistic effect of crevice corrosion and deposit corrosion. The corrosion processes can be divided into three steps.

This research is an originality study on the failure case of a commercially pure titanium air conditioning condenser. This study makes up for the shortage of titanium alloy failure cases and also gives the result of the failure reason and failure mechanism for titanium, which has an engineering significance.

Source location decision making is a contemporary problem facing many businesses as they globalize their supply chains. This paper seeks to empirically determine the influence of culture on the industrial procurement manager's perception of the different characteristics of potential global sourcing locations, with a view to integrating the influence of culture operating at different levels into a global sourcing location decision framework; thereby enhancing managerial insights to the role played by culture in making decisions.

The paper applies factor analysis and multiple regression on a survey sample of 181 responses gathered from native eastern and western procurement managers. The authors investigate how 12 procurement attributes drawn from the literature relate to each other with respect to low‐cost regions.

The research results show that procurement managers select regions for low‐cost sourcing based on both specific measures and individual and/or group perceptions of the region, whether these perceptions are correct or not. This paper recommends a novel way to look at culture, as a bias of thought that impacts decision making. The research has clearly shows that cultural orientation impacts geographical perceptions which in turn impact criteria ratings of locations.

The authors have demonstrated that a two‐stage supplier selection decision model is justified as such a model appears to be a practical reality even though not advocated by previous sourcing literature and research. The authors point out the need for both western and eastern managers to be aware of their differences in geographic evaluation, as this could be an effective strategy for minimizing the effects of prejudged reality.

In this research culture is viewed as a fundamental decision‐making construct. Most research on this construct is found in the social psychology literature. Applying these theories to the business discipline of sourcing is both novel and inter‐disciplinary in nature.

There is good evidence that the shift in global sourcing is toward so‐called “low cost country suppliers.” Yet conditions in these countries are often not well‐known. At the same time, best practices in integrated supply dictate a multi‐faceted decision, rather than basing supplier location on a single attribute say, labor cost alone. With these issues in mind, a research project was formulated with two primary objectives. First, the authors wanted to compile the knowledge and perceptions of purchasing managers regarding low cost regions and their capabilities and to reflect the multiple factors involved in current sourcing strategies and supplier selection decisions in these low cost geographies. Second, the authors wanted to compare managers' subjective perceptions with objective data regarding attributes of sourcing locations to identify the relationship between perceptions and reality. This paper aims to explore the issues.

The authors surveyed over 100 sourcing professionals on their perceptions of various low cost sourcing alternatives. Perceptual mapping techniques were used to combine the rankings on some 12 different attributes to visualize how the various attributes relate to each other and how the low cost regions compare when rated against sourcing managers' ideal perceptions.

The research results show that procurement managers select regions for low cost sourcing based on both specific measures and individual and/or group perceptions of the region, whether these perceptions are correct or not. This paper probes these perceptions. Also the paper compares these subjective perceptions with objective data to show that cultural stereotypes may bias managers' perception of location‐specific characteristics. The paper closes with implications for procurement managers and opportunities for further research.

The authors have demonstrated that purchasing managers choose sourcing locations using multiple criteria instead of only focusing on cost. But some perceptions are biased by cultural stereotypes and do not reflect reality. This suggests that managers have to be careful when using their subjective judgment in choosing sourcing locations.

The authors believe that visual representations of alternative sourcing options have great potential to improve the efficiency of cross‐disciplinary and multi‐company teams that are increasingly responsible for global sourcing strategies. Comparing managers' perception with objective data of location attributes shows that mangers' perception may be biased by cultural stereotypes.

In this study, the authors aim to understand the antecedents of technology adoption in Sub-Saharan Africa by investigating the relationship between people's economic status, their positive attitudes, and the adoption of communications technology.

The authors used data obtained from the Gallup World Poll that was conducted in 2008. The Gallup World Poll is a survey of residents in more than 150 countries. Based on a sample of 8,787 in Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria, the authors used SEM to test the hypotheses.

Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that economic status significantly predicts both positive attitudes and technology adoption. Further, the authors found that infrastructure development moderates the relationship between economic status and technology adoption.

The study attempts to plug the gaps in established theories of technology adoption which typically do not take into consideration factors that are peculiar to LDC contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to apply the theory of perceptual image to clothing, study the effect of bra components on the perceptual image of Chinese female consumers aged 18 to 27, explore the relationship between them, promote the computer-aided bra design to be more rapid and accurate and meet consumer's needs better.

In this paper, cognitive psychology and mathematical analysis methods were used, and two experiments were conducted. A reaction time experiment was conducted based on 3D virtual bra samples, proving that bra components have an effect on the consumer's perceptual image and obtaining a revised bra component design indicator system by multi-dimensional Scaling (MDS). A projection experiment was conducted to study what kind of relationship exists between the two, and a prediction model was constructed by the quantitative I-class theory.

It is found that bra components have an effect on perceptual image of Chinese female consumers aged 18 to 27. A total of five important components (cup area, center front height, torso width, side wing width and center back shape) that affect the consumer's perceptual image were identified by MDS and references analysis, and then a bra perceptual image space composed of five pairs of words was constructed by subjective evaluation and cluster analysis. What is more, a prediction model was obtained by the quantitative I-class theory; after testing, the model can visually and effectively predict consumer's perceptual image according to bra components indicators, which provide a convenience for the positive design of bras.

In this article, the authors just studied bra components, but did not take fabric, color and other factors that also affect the perceptual image into consideration. Further research can use this method to study other important influential factors as well as their comprehensive impact. Also, the subjects are Chinese young women; consumers of other age or from other countries are not involved, and more extensive research can be done in the future.

The bra component indicator system can help to build a more systematic and clearer bra design library, which provides convenience for designers to search and use them quickly, improving the efficiency of bra design. The prediction model is also helpful to bra designers and companies. When they already design a bra, they can use this model to predict consumer's perceptual image, thus carry out more accurate market positioning and promotion. When they want to satisfy consumers or design a specific effect, they can also refer to this model to reverse design of components. In general, the outcomes of this paper can help companies to quickly establish a computer-aided bra design system, which is conducive to designers to accurately design and better meet market's needs, and the method is also a good attempt to apply the theory of perceptual image in psychology to clothing and can be extended to other relevant fields in the future.

Based on cognitive psychology, this paper attempts to apply the theory of perceptual image in psychology into clothing and takes bra as an example to study the relationship between bra components and consumer's perceptual image. The prediction model constructed here is conducive to the development of bra design and to meet personalized needs of consumers. This method can also be extended to other fields in the future.