Xi Liu, Bu Mi, Fei Li and Deqiang Zou
This study aims to explore how the ideal employee effects of internal marketing are created and sustained. It aims to reveal the role that outbound marketing activities play in…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore how the ideal employee effects of internal marketing are created and sustained. It aims to reveal the role that outbound marketing activities play in the reproduction of a brand-centric employee culture.
Design/methodology/approach
From an organizational ritual perspective, this study conducts a qualitative study of a Chinese department store’s anniversary celebration, which is a multi-day annual sales event. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, supplemented with corporate documents and field observation.
Findings
This study reveals that the focal event remains a success because the well-managed coordination of its onstage and backstage activities serves to reproduce an employee culture of espousing and voluntarily enacting corporately mandated role norms, values and beliefs.
Practical implications
For the management of retail events with the aim of building organizational culture, this study points to the importance of emphasizing the symbolism of the sales promotion aspects of an event and paying as much attention to employees’ backstage experiences as to the public execution of a consumer event.
Originality/value
This study shows that external marketing could set the stage for internal marketing, with the ideal effects of internal marketing actually constructed and institutionalized during activities and procedures comprising outbound marketing. This suggests that a more nuanced view of the practice of internal marketing is warranted.
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Lixia Wang, Xin Zhang, Beibei Yan and Vigdis Boasson
This paper aims to examine the internal logical relationship between two intergenerational inheritance ways of passing property rights and residual control rights (RCR) and to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the internal logical relationship between two intergenerational inheritance ways of passing property rights and residual control rights (RCR) and to construct a conceptual model comprising transfer elements, paths and timing of succession in this process.
Design/methodology/approach
Driven by the cases of Haixin, Tianyijiao and Changhe Group, this paper applies research methods of copying and expanding analysis logic, progressive deduction, content analysis and comparative research based on the perspective of HeXie theory to explore the deep interrelation of transfer elements, paths and timing during family business succession.
Findings
The findings present that the content of intergenerational inheritance of a family firm is the inheritance of property rights and RCR. First, the inheritance of property rights is a static inheritance of time-point delivery, whereas the inheritance of RCR is a dynamic inheritance process for a period of time. Second, the inheritance of property rights and RCR are not independent; only a “HeXie” succession of both rights can realize a successful inheritance of family firms.
Originality/value
This paper constructs the paths and timing model of intergenerational inheritance of property rights and RCR in family firms. This paper integrates the current literature studies on the family inheritance of property rights and RCR and explains their internal mechanisms. This paper also provides a theoretical foundation and empirical evidence for family business transitions in the business world.
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Yunzhou Du, Yang Sun, Yiyi Su, Phillip Kim and Liangding Jia
Cunhu Xi and Xiaoqian Qu
This paper aims to explore how informational faultlines impact new product creativity through specific mechanisms. The study focuses on analyzing how knowledge hiding mediates the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how informational faultlines impact new product creativity through specific mechanisms. The study focuses on analyzing how knowledge hiding mediates the relationship between informational faultlines and new product creativity, and how team promotion regulatory focus and team prevention regulatory focus moderate this process.
Design/methodology/approach
This research investigates the proposed hypotheses by examining sample data from 65 team leaders and 370 employees, delving into the relationship between informational faultlines and new product creativity and its underlying mechanisms.
Findings
Knowledge hiding negatively mediates the relationship between informational faultlines and new product creativity; team promotion regulatory focus negatively moderates the relationship between informational faultlines and knowledge hiding; team prevention regulatory focus positively moderates the relationship between informational faultlines and knowledge hiding; team promotion regulatory focus negatively moderates the mediating role of knowledge hiding in the link between informational faultlines and new product creativity. The higher the level of team promotion regulatory focus, the weaker the mediating role of knowledge hiding between informational faultlines and new product creativity, and vice versa; team prevention regulatory focus positively moderates the mediating effect of knowledge hiding in the relationship between informational faultlines and new product creativity. The higher the level of team prevention regulatory focus, the stronger the mediating effect of knowledge hiding on informational faultlines and new product creativity, and vice versa.
Originality/value
This paper constructs a novel moderated mediation model based on the need-threat model. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first to explore the relationship between informational faultlines and new product creativity from the perspective of knowledge retention, effectively filling the research gap on the role of knowledge hiding between informational faultlines and team innovative output and the moderate role of team motivational-based psychological characteristics, such as team regulatory focus, in the aforementioned mechanisms.
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Yueyue Liu, Xu Zhang, Meng Xi, Siqi Liu and Xin Meng
For start-ups or growing firms, to effectively navigate the unpredictable nature of digital development and achieve superior innovative performance, it is crucial to have a…
Abstract
Purpose
For start-ups or growing firms, to effectively navigate the unpredictable nature of digital development and achieve superior innovative performance, it is crucial to have a workforce comprised of creative and innovative employees. Drawing upon the principles of social information processing theory, this study aims to investigate whether specific combinations of organizational internal and external environments, as well as work characteristics in the digital age, can foster a high level of employee innovative behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
By collecting a multilevel and multisource data set comprising 693 employees and 88 CEOs from 88 start-ups or growing firms, this study used fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to examine the distinctive configurations associated with achieving a high level of employee innovative behavior.
Findings
The study found that six solutions enabled employees to innovate more effectively, but six solutions led to the absence of employee innovative behavior.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this study offer important theoretical and practical implications to motivate employee innovative behavior in Chinese enterprises.
Originality/value
First, this study contributes to the literature on employee innovative behavior by addressing the need to explore the impact of the digital context on promoting innovation among employees. Second, this study adds to the existing literature on employee innovation and entrepreneurship by examining multiple organizational contexts and their influence on innovative behavior. Third, this study makes a significant contribution to the field of employee innovative behavior by examining the macroenvironment surrounding digital transformation within enterprises and integrating both internal and external organizational factors.
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Chenggang Duan, Xinmei Liu, Xiaomei Yang and Cheng Deng
Drawing on job demands and resources theory and the challenge-hindrance stressor framework, this study aims to investigate the effect of team knowledge complexity on team…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on job demands and resources theory and the challenge-hindrance stressor framework, this study aims to investigate the effect of team knowledge complexity on team information sharing and information searching and examine whether team learning goal orientation mediates these effects.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted two studies. Study 1 used a field survey study conducted among 374 employees positioned in 68 new product teams. Study 2 used a three-wave online survey study conducted among 208 leaders to investigate the teams they managed.
Findings
The findings of the two studies reveal that team knowledge complexity has a positive direct effect on team information sharing and information searching. Furthermore, team learning goal orientation mediates these two relationships.
Practical implications
The findings indicate that team knowledge complexity is generally beneficial for the team information process. Therefore, instead of fearing an increase in the knowledge complexity of the projects, organizations should dare to present challenge demands to team members to enhance their engagement in information processing. Organizations could also pay attention to team member selection during team composition processes. For example, selecting team members with a high level of learning goal orientation is helpful in facilitating team information processing.
Originality/value
Although previous studies have found that knowledge complexity is beneficial for team output, less is known about how knowledge complexity influences team processes. This study clarifies the relationships between team knowledge complexity, information sharing and information searching and examines team learning goal orientation as a vital mediator.
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Qiuping Wang, Subing Liu and Guoqiang Xiong
The aggregation of information from a group of decision experts for developing collective opinion is the important question in practice. The purpose of this paper is to provide a…
Abstract
Purpose
The aggregation of information from a group of decision experts for developing collective opinion is the important question in practice. The purpose of this paper is to provide a group decision-making method via ordered weighted aggregation (OWA) operator and grey incidence analysis.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, OWA operator provides aggregation of attribute values to form an overall decision for each decision expert, and grey incidence model provides aggregation of decision experts’ evaluations to form overall score for each alternative. The example illustrates the procedure and practicability of the proposed model.
Findings
A new thought for multiple attribute group decision-making problems is given. The proposed method produces an overall desirability score for each alternative.
Practical implications
This is to obtain a more comprehensive and realistic solution to the given group decision-making problem. The proposed analysis method of group decision-making problems reveals vitality of grey systems theory.
Originality/value
This paper combines OWA operator and grey incidence analysis to obtain a novel and effective method for group decision making. It is suitable for group decision-making problems in which the attribute weights are completely unknown, expert weights are completely unknown.
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Ke Du, Fu Jia and Lujie Chen
Global business practices show that during periods of demand volatility, manufacturing firms often engage in asymmetric cost management (ACM), a behavior in which costs increase…
Abstract
Purpose
Global business practices show that during periods of demand volatility, manufacturing firms often engage in asymmetric cost management (ACM), a behavior in which costs increase faster than they decrease when demand decreases by the same amount. However, whether managing asymmetric costs will enhance or impede firm resilience remains an open question. We aim to investigate the impact of ACM on firm resilience and its boundary conditions.
Design/methodology/approach
Using unbalanced panel data of 2,273 Chinese manufacturing listed companies from 2002 to 2021, we conduct an empirical analysis using a double fixed effects model.
Findings
Our findings reveal that ACM has a negative effect on firm resilience. This suggests that in coping with external environmental fluctuations, ACM fails to fulfill its expected role effectively. Instead, it manifests as a severe agency problem affecting firm resilience. Further, we find that managerial myopia and digitalization diminish the negative effect, while customer instability exacerbates it.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on the organizational resilience of manufacturing firms by providing an in-depth understanding of cost management and emphasizing the need to consider agency issues carefully when managing asymmetric costs.
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While some significant government personnel appointments remain to be confirmed, these can be expected to follow Xi’s preferences given his clean sweep of filling the Politburo…