Qi Yue, Ping Deng, Yanyan Cao and Xing Hua
Post-acquisition control is a crucial factor affecting acquisition performance. We investigate how post-acquisition control strategy affects cross-border acquisition performance…
Abstract
Purpose
Post-acquisition control is a crucial factor affecting acquisition performance. We investigate how post-acquisition control strategy affects cross-border acquisition performance of Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs) through a configurational perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on 70 cross-border acquisition cases by Chinese MNEs, we adopt fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to study the combined effects of strategic control, operational control, institutional distance, cultural distance, relative capacity and business relatedness on the cross-border acquisition performance.
Findings
On the basis of fuzzy set analysis of multiple interdependent factors, we identify six configurations that are conductive to achieving high cross-border acquisition performance and two configurations that relate to the absence of high performance, thus shedding light on the casually complex nature of performance drivers of acquisitions.
Originality/value
This study provides a holistic, configurational approach to investigating cross-border acquisition performance by emerging market firms. Our results provide some compelling evidence that accounts for the causal complexity of post-acquisition control strategies and acquisition outcomes in the context of emerging economies.
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Guangkuan Deng, Jianyu Zhang, Naiyi Ye and Rui Chi
Drawing from the ancient Chinese philosopher Xunzi's insights on humanity, this study aims to address human nature's critical role in influencing and shaping consumers' shopping…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing from the ancient Chinese philosopher Xunzi's insights on humanity, this study aims to address human nature's critical role in influencing and shaping consumers' shopping channel choices in the emerging artificial intelligence (AI) era and the implications for non-East Asian countries.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the theory of planned behaviour and accessibility–diagnosticity theory, our approach created a holistic model conceptualising human nature, shopping orientations, channel choice intentions, subjective norms and perceived AI usefulness. A questionnaire survey method served to test the framework.
Findings
The results validated human nature's role in shaping and influencing consumers' channel choices through shopping orientation. Subjective norms weaken the positive relationship between human nature and shopping orientation, while the positive relationship between shopping orientation and online purchase intention is stronger when consumers perceived AI as highly useful.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to humanity hypotheses literature in management by introducing Xunzi's theory that views human nature as evil. Additionally, it enriches channel choice literature by introducing perceived AI usefulness.
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Guangkuan Deng, Jianyu Zhang, Lijuan He and Ying Xu
Drawing on the wisdom of ancient Chinese philosopher Xunzi, this paper aims to present a novel mechanism for governing opportunism, referred to as “cultivational governance.” By…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the wisdom of ancient Chinese philosopher Xunzi, this paper aims to present a novel mechanism for governing opportunism, referred to as “cultivational governance.” By examining the role of artificial intelligence (AI) resources possessed by e-commerce platforms, the authors explore how these resources contribute to mitigating seller opportunism. The central hypothesis of this study posits that two distinct types of AI resources, namely, AI technology resources and AI human resources, serve as crucial factors in curbing seller opportunism. Furthermore, the authors propose that platform digital empowerment and value cocreation act as mediating variables linking AI resources to opportunism.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the resource-based view and resource orchestration theory, the authors developed a framework and tested it using survey data from sellers. This framework encompasses five key variables: e-commerce platform’s AI technology resources, AI human resources, platform digital empowerment, value cocreation and seller opportunism. Regression analysis was used for data analysis.
Findings
The empirical results validate the effectiveness of cultivational governance mechanisms, as both AI resources effectively suppress seller opportunism through digital empowerment and value cocreation. Specifically, e-commerce platforms’ AI technology resources significantly promote value cocreation and platform digital empowerment, while AI human resources primarily contribute to platform digital empowerment. Although platform digital empowerment encourages value cocreation, its direct impact on reducing seller opportunism was not supported. Notably, value cocreation negatively affects seller opportunism.
Originality/value
The present research mainly contributes to the marketing channel governance literature by introducing a new approach to inhibit opportunism, namely, the cultivational governance mechanism.
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Fei-Fei Cheng, Yu-Wen Huang, Der-Chian Tsaih and Chin-Shan Wu
The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution of collaboration among researchers in Library Hi Tech based on the co-authorship network analysis.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution of collaboration among researchers in Library Hi Tech based on the co-authorship network analysis.
Design/methodology/approach
The Library Hi Tech publications were retrieved from Web of Science database between 2006 and 2017. Social network analysis based on co-authorship was analyzed by using BibExcel software and a visual knowledge map was generated by Pajek. Three important social capital indicators: degree centrality, closeness centrality and betweenness centrality were calculated to indicate the co-authorship. Cohesive subgroup analysis which includes components and k-core was then applied to show the connectivity of co-authorship network of Library Hi Tech.
Findings
The results indicated that around 42 percent of the articles were written by single author, while an increasing trend of multi-authored articles suggesting the collaboration among researchers in librarian research field becomes popular. Furthermore, the social network analysis identified authorship network with three core authors – Markey, K., Fourie, I. and Li, X. Finally, six core subgroups each included six or seven tightly connected researchers were also identified.
Originality/value
This study contributed to the existing literature by revealing the co-authorship network in librarian research field. Key researchers in the major subgroup were identified. This is one of the limited studies that describe the collaboration network among authors from different perspectives showing a more comprehensive co-authorship network.
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Naveen Revanna and Charles K.S. Moy
This paper employs a textile reinforcement strain comparison to study the response of Textile Reinforced Mortars (TRM) strengthened reinforced concrete one-way slab members in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper employs a textile reinforcement strain comparison to study the response of Textile Reinforced Mortars (TRM) strengthened reinforced concrete one-way slab members in flexure using the finite element method. Basalt TRM (BTRM) is a relatively new composite in structural strengthening applications. Experimental data on BTRMs are limited in the literature and numerical analyses can help further the understanding of this composite. With this notion, Abaqus finite element software is utilised to create a numerical method to capture the mechanical response of strengthened slab members instead of time-consuming laboratory experiments.
Design/methodology/approach
A numerical method is developed and validated using existing experimental data set on one-way slabs strengthened using Basalt TRMs from the literature. An explicit solver is utilised to analyse the finite element model created using calibrated Concrete Damage Plasticity (CDP) parameters according to the experimental requirements. The generated model is applied to extract load, deflection and rebar strains sustained by strengthened reinforced concrete slabs as observed from the experimental reference chosen. The applicability of the developed model was studied beyond parametric studies by comparing the generated finite element tensile strain by the textile fibre with available formulae.
Findings
CDP calibration done has shown its adaptability. The predicted results in the form of load versus deflection, tensile and compressive damage patterns from the numerical analysis showed good agreement with the experimental data. A parametric study on various concrete strength, textile spacing and TRM bond length obtained shows TRM’s advantages and its favourability for external strengthening applications. A set of five formulae considered to predict the experimental strain showed varied accuracy.
Originality/value
The developed numerical model considers strain sustained by the textile fibre to make results more robust and reliable. The obtained strain from the numerical study showed good agreement with the experiment results.
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Hao Wang and Sanhong Deng
In the era of Big Data, network digital resources are growing rapidly, especially the short-text resources, such as tweets, comments, messages and so on, are showing a vigorous…
Abstract
Purpose
In the era of Big Data, network digital resources are growing rapidly, especially the short-text resources, such as tweets, comments, messages and so on, are showing a vigorous vitality. This study aims to compare the categories discriminative capacity (CDC) of Chinese language fragments with different granularities and to explore and verify feasibility, rationality and effectiveness of the low-granularity feature, such as Chinese characters in Chinese short-text classification (CSTC).
Design/methodology/approach
This study takes discipline classification of journal articles from CSSCI as a simulation environment. On the basis of sorting out the distribution rules of classification features with various granularities, including keywords, terms and characters, the classification effects accessed by the SVM algorithm are comprehensively compared and evaluated from three angles of using the same experiment samples, testing before and after feature optimization, and introducing external data.
Findings
The granularity of a classification feature has an important impact on CSTC. In general, the larger the granularity is, the better the classification result is, and vice versa. However, a low-granularity feature is also feasible, and its CDC could be improved by reasonable weight setting, even exceeding a high-granularity feature if synthetically considering classification precision, computational complexity and text coverage.
Originality/value
This is the first study to propose that Chinese characters are more suitable as descriptive features in CSTC than terms and keywords and to demonstrate that CDC of Chinese character features could be strengthened by mixing frequency and position as weight.
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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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Wenli Zhang, Fengchun Tian, An Song, Zhenzhen Zhao, Youwen Hu and Anyan Jiang
This paper aims to propose an odor sensing system based on wide spectrum for e-nose, based on comprehensive analysis on the merits and drawbacks of current e-nose.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose an odor sensing system based on wide spectrum for e-nose, based on comprehensive analysis on the merits and drawbacks of current e-nose.
Design/methodology/approach
The wide spectral light is used as the sensing medium in the e-nose system based on continuous wide spectrum (CWS) odor sensing, and the sensing response of each sensing element is the change of light intensity distribution.
Findings
Experimental results not only verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed system but also show the effectiveness of least square support vector machine (LSSVM) in eliminating system errors.
Practical implications
Theoretical model of the system was constructed, and experimental tests were carried out by using NO2 and SO2. System errors in the test data were eliminated using the LSSVM, and the preprocessed data were classified by euclidean distance to centroids (EDC), k-nearest neighbor (KNN), support vector machine (SVM), LSSVM, respectively.
Originality/value
The system not only has the advantages of current e-nose but also realizes expansion of sensing array by means of light source and the spectrometer with their wide spectrum, high resolution characteristics which improve the detection accuracy and realize real-time detection.
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Shuo Yao, John Brummette and Yi Luo
Based on the literature on organizational legitimacy, organizations must adhere to the value-driven standards inherent in the cultures in which they operate. Organizations’ Web…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on the literature on organizational legitimacy, organizations must adhere to the value-driven standards inherent in the cultures in which they operate. Organizations’ Web sites help increase the public’s awareness and understanding of their values and culture. The purpose of this paper is to examine the strategic legitimation efforts of Chinese organizations through their Web content.
Design/methodology/approach
To identify the core values and cultures communicated by Chinese organizations, a systematic content analysis was conducted on the Web contents of Chinese Fortune 500 companies (n=500) as listed by the 2010 Chinese Fortune 500 online magazine.
Findings
The major findings included the following: over half (i.e. 62.2 percent) of the Chinese Fortune 500 companies communicated their organizational values on their Web sites; this study identified some key value clusters (e.g. such as trustworthiness, propriety, benevolence, or self-regulation) for Chinese organizations’ legitimacy; Confucianism exerted a strong influence on these Chinese organizations’ values; and Chinese organizations relied on cooperation and coordination to achieve harmonic relationships with others.
Research limitations/implications
The current study only focussed on the most profitable and successful Chinese organizations. Future studies could extend this analysis to examine differences between the values communicated by privately owned and non-profit organizations in China. Since the current study adopted a strategic organizational legitimacy framework, future research should use an institutional legitimacy framework by actively assessing the relational networks of Chinese consumers to identify the societal standards that make up organizational legitimacy from the consumer perspective. Focus groups or in-depth interviews with various consumers and employees would help identify these expectations and their corresponding values and provide an in-depth examination of how these standards are created.
Practical implications
This study suggested two key implications. First, Chinese organizations believe that the values (e.g. harmony, truth-seeking, or unity) held by employees have formed the foundation of organizational behavior or image. Second, individual and cultural values have guiding roles in the standards that constituents establish for organizations. Global communication practitioners must counsel managers conducting business with Chinese organizations to recognize the cultural influence on how Chinese companies conduct business.
Originality/value
This study represents a pioneering study in a series of studies focussed on conceptualizing organizational legitimacy in Chinese cultures.