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This study aims to explore the impact of well-educated young Chinese employees’ notions of work on their conflict management styles in the increasingly turbulent workplace to help better manage work-related conflict in the time of transition in China.

Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data from over 400 young Chinese employees. The data were first factor analyzed to explore the underlying dimensions of contemporary work notions in China’s transition period. Hierarchical regression analysis was then conducted to explore the relationship between dimensions of work notions and conflict management styles.

The results showed that well-educated young Chinese employees’ notions of work consisted of sense of control, fulfilling and rewarding, holistic concerns, personal growth and development and meaningfulness. The results further indicated that young Chinese employees with strong needs to satisfy individual interests in their work tend to use competitive methods to manage work-related conflicts, employees with strong needs to satisfy group interests in their work prefer to use collaborative methods and those who believe in collective efforts in achieving individual goals through group goals’ obtainment are more likely to use collaborative and compromising approaches.

This study provides a new perspective to manage work-related conflict in the Chinese context. The findings of this study are able to help enrich conflict management theories in China and suggest insightful conflict resolution approaches to work-related conflicts in China’s changing environment. This study also helps bridge the research gap between work notions and conflict management styles. The results of this study can greatly facilitate Chinese companies’ endeavors toward crafting a more innovative workforce and help improve employee performance in China’s transition to industrialization.

This paper aims—based on past research works which have shown that transformational leadership has positive impact on knowledge sharing—to explore the impact of different leadership dimensions of transformational leadership on knowledge sharing and further to explore the mechanism through which transformational leadership affects employee knowledge sharing in China.

Based on the transformational leadership theory and the team learning theory, it is proposed that all four dimensions of transformational leadership, including intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, inspirational motivation and idealized influence, have unique impact on employee knowledge sharing. It is further proposed that psychology safety and team efficacy mediate these relationships. Then data were collected from over 400 employees from knowledge-based companies in China to empirically test the proposed relationships with the method of structural equation modeling.

The results show that psychological safety fully mediated the impact of intellectual stimulation on knowledge sharing, and team efficacy fully mediated the impact of inspirational motivation on knowledge sharing. Both factors also mediated the impact of individualized consideration on knowledge sharing. The results thus provide empirical support for the impact of transformational leadership on employee knowledge sharing in an international context.

The past years have seen increasing interest in leadership and knowledge sharing in emerging markets, yet the mechanism through which leadership affects employee knowledge sharing remains understudied. This study explores the impact of different dimensions of transformational leadership on employee knowledge sharing, and further shows that psychological safety and team efficacy mediate these relationships in a collectivistic society where knowledge sharing is consistent with cultural norms. The findings help develop more robust knowledge sharing theories in the international context and provide insightful suggestions for management practitioners in emerging markets.

Online brand communities (OBCs) are important platforms to obtain consumers' ideas. The purpose of this study is to examine how peer influence and consumer contribution behavior simulate innovative behaviors in OBCs to increase idea quality.

Using a firm-hosted popular online brand community – Xiaomi Community (MIUI), the authors collected a set of data from 6567 consumers and then used structural equation modeling (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to empirically test the impact of peer influence and consumer contribution behaviors on idea quality in OBCs.

The results of this study show that both peer influence breadth and depth have a positive effect on idea adoption and peer recognition, wherein proactive contribution behavior positively mediates these relationships, and responsive contribution behavior negatively mediates the impact of peer influence breadth and peer influence depth on peer recognition. A more detailed analysis using the fsQCA method further identifies four types of antecedent configurations for better idea quality.

Based on the attention-based view and the theory of learning by feedback, this study explores the factors that affect idea quality in the context of social networks and extends the research of peer influence in the digital age. The paper helps improve our understanding of how to promote customer idea quality in OBCs.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of organizational rewards on two forms of knowledge sharing – explicit knowledge sharing and tacit knowledge sharing in virtual communities, and further to explore the mediating effect of intrinsic motivation on the effect of virtual community rewards on implicit knowledge sharing.

Based on relevant knowledge sharing theories, this study develops an integrated framework to explore virtual community rewards and tacit and explicit knowledge sharing in a virtual context. This study then collected data from 429 virtual community users in four virtual communities via an online survey. Hierarchical regression analyzes were used to test the proposed research model.

The results of this study show that virtual rewards have a significantly positive linear relationship with explicit knowledge sharing but have an inverse U-shape relationship with tacit knowledge sharing in virtual communities. In addition, intrinsic motivations including enjoyment and self-efficacy mediate the relationship between rewards and tacit knowledge sharing.

This study suggests more virtual community rewards may not always lead to more tacit knowledge sharing. Instead, too many rewards may weaken the motivation for tacit knowledge sharing. Knowledge management practitioners should make full use of the positive impact of self-efficacy and enjoyment to set up appropriate reward incentives to encourage knowledge-sharing, in particular, tacit knowledge sharing and to better manage virtual communities.

This study explores knowledge-sharing behavior in virtual communities, an important step toward more integrated knowledge-sharing theories. While online communities have become increasingly important for today’s knowledge economy, few studies have explored knowledge and knowledge sharing in a virtual context and this study helps to bridge the gap. In addition, this study develops an integrated framework to explore the mechanism through which virtual community rewards affect knowledge sharing with intrinsic motivation mediating this relationship in online communities, which further enriches the understanding on how to use virtual rewards to motivate knowledge sharing behaviors in the virtual context.

This study aims to use the knowledge management perspective to examine the mechanism through which entrepreneurship drives firms’ technological innovation in the digital age. The objective is to develop a multi-stage integrated theoretical model to explain how entrepreneurship exerts its influence on firms’ technological innovation with a particular focus on the knowledge management perspective. The findings can be used for the cultivation of entrepreneurship and for the promotion of continuous technological innovation activities.

This study uses a case-based qualitative approach to examine the relationship between entrepreneurship and technological innovation. The authors first analyze the case of SANY and then explore the mechanism of how entrepreneurship can promote a firm’s technological innovation from the perspective of knowledge management based on the technology-organization-environment framework. An integrated theoretical model is then developed in this study.

Based on a case study, the authors propose that there are three main processes of knowledge management in firms’ technological innovation: knowledge acquisition, knowledge integration and knowledge creation. In the process of knowledge acquisition, the joint effects of innovation spirit, learning spirit, cooperation spirit and global vision drive the construction and its healthy development of firms’ innovation ecosystem. In the process of knowledge integration, the joint effects of innovation spirit, cooperation spirit and learning spirit help complete the integration of knowledge and further the accumulation of firms’ core knowledge resources. In the process of knowledge creation, the joint effects of mission spirit, learning spirit and innovation spirit encourage the top management team to establish long-term goals and innovation philosophy. This philosophy can promote the establishment of a people-oriented incentive mechanism that helps achieve the transformation from the accumulation of core knowledge resources to the research and innovation of core technologies. After these three stages, firms are passively engaged in the “reverse transfer of knowledge” step, which contributes to other firms’ knowledge management cycle. With active knowledge acquisition, integration, creation and passive reverse knowledge transfer, firms can achieve continuous technological innovation.

This study has important theoretical implications in entrepreneurship research. This study helps advance the understanding of entrepreneurship and literature on the relationship between entrepreneurship and technological innovation in the digital age, which can broaden the application of knowledge management theories. It can also help better understand how to develop healthy firm-led innovation ecosystems to achieve continuous optimization of knowledge and technological innovation in the digital age.

This study proposes an integrated theoretical model to address the issues of entrepreneurship and firms’ technological innovation in the digital age, and it is also one of few studies that focuses on entrepreneurship and innovation from a knowledge management perspective.

The study aims to map the intellectual structure of business ethics studies by analyzing 17,246 citations of 225 papers published in Business Ethics Quarterly (BEQ) in the year between 2005 and 2014. Specifically, the purpose of the study is to describe the current state of BEQ, identify the most influential journals and works, identify the key themes of business ethics studies during 2005-2014 and, at the same time, report the changes in themes by making a comparison between two time periods – 2005-2009 and 2010-2014.

First, the study presents the information of the authors, institutions and countries that contribute to BEQ with a statistical analysis. Second, the study identifies the most cited journals and works in BEQ during 2005-2014 with a citation analysis. Third, the study identifies the key research themes in business ethics studies with a co-citation analysis. With the help of factor and social network analysis (NA), the study groups the research themes and maps their links.

First, the statistical results show that many well-known researchers from famous US institutions publishing in BEQ. Second, the citation analysis results show that quite a few journals become mature gradually in business ethics domain. Besides, most of the influential works are normative and theoretical. Third, the co-citation results indicate that “stakeholder management” and “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) are two main themes in business ethics studies in the past decade. Specifically, “stakeholder management” attracts the most research interests in both two sub-time periods. In addition, compared with the pure studies on CSR during 2005-2009, increasing researchers are keen on the theme of “political CSR under globalization” in the second five years. Meanwhile, other focus like “society, state and business ethics” earns a certain degree of attention in the time window 2005-2009. And “accountability in MNCs” and “political philosophy” are the new concerns in the year between 2010 and 2014.

The study confirms BEQ’s leadership role in business ethics domain. And, it further proves that business ethics has evolved as an independent discipline. It also helps the researchers to have a concise knowledge of the main contents and key points of business ethics research. Methodologically, co-citation analysis combined with factor and NA provides clear results and visualized figures which can be understood easily by the researchers and practitioners.

Entrepreneurship research clearly documents the importance of human and social capital and stresses the way in which entrepreneurs take advantage of their own social affiliations and network strategies in pursuit of their entrepreneurial goals, yet the research on returnee entrepreneurs’ human and social capital is not sufficiently studied in the international context, in particular when returnees’ overseas human capital and social capital may be a misfit with local business environment. Using the data from Chinese returnee entrepreneurs’ venture activities in China, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of returnee entrepreneurs’ overseas capital (human and social) and domestic capital (human and social) on their venture performance in China, and further explore the interaction effect of different social and human capital with China’s entrepreneurial environment.

This study surveyed 500 start-up businesses created by returnee entrepreneurs in China to collect data. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data on their demographic information, the information about the human and social capital of these returnee entrepreneurs, including domestic and overseas capital, various performance measures, and other control variables ending up with 226 usable questionnaires.

The results show that Chinese returnee entrepreneurs’ overseas human capital and social capital, as well as their domestic social capital, but not domestic human capital, have a significant impact on their venture performance. In addition, while domestic entrepreneurial environment does not affect the impact of overseas human and social capital on venture performance, it does provide an important contextual setting for domestic capital to improve returnee entrepreneurs’ venture performance.

The findings help enrich the understanding of the dynamic interplays among Chinese returnee entrepreneurs’ domestic human capital and social capital, overseas human capital, and social capital, as well as the entrepreneurial environment for returnee entrepreneurs’ success, which makes an important contribution to the international entrepreneurship theory by showing that overseas human capital and social capital are not a misfit with local markets. It also provides empirical support for the mediating effect of entrepreneurial opportunity identification. The important role of entrepreneurial opportunity is empirically supported in an international context: entrepreneurship is all about the discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities and exploitation of this opportunity to create viable business entities for new products and services, even in the Chinese context, a culture which is very different from the ones where the entrepreneurship theory was developed.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how a team leader’s conflict management style (CMS) affects team innovation performance (TIP) in entrepreneurial teams using a team emotion perspective.

It is proposed in this study that team passion mediates the impact of team leader’s CMSs on team performance, which is further moderated by team emotional intelligence (TEI). Then this study collected paired data from 105 teams including 105 team leaders and 411 team members to test the proposed model.

The results show that a team leader’s cooperative CMS has a significant positive impact on TIP and team passion further mediates the relationship between the team leader’s CMSs and TIP. The results also show that TEI moderates the relationship between the leader’s CMSs and team passion.

This study helps enriches the literature of conflict management by exploring the mechanisms through which a team leader’s CMSs affect team performance in entrepreneurial activities, and the findings of this study highlight the important role of team passion in this process. In addition, this study integrates the research on conflict management and the research on team passion in entrepreneurial teams to provide a new perspective to explore the dynamic process of entrepreneurial activities, which sheds light on the investigation of the important implications of effective conflict management in the entrepreneurship.

This field study aims to investigate the interactive relationships of millennial employee’s gender, supervisor’s gender and country culture on the conflict-management strategies (CMS) in ten countries (USA, China, Turkey, Germany, Bangladesh, Portugal, Pakistan, Italy, Thailand and Hong Kong).

This exploratory study extends past research by examining the interactive effects of gender × supervisor’s gender × country on the CMS within a single generation of workers, millennials. The Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory–II, Form A was used to assess the use of the five CMS (integrating, obliging, dominating, avoiding and compromising). Data analysis found CMS used in the workplace are associated with the interaction of worker and supervisor genders and the national context of their work.

Data analysis (N = 2,801) was performed using the multivariate analysis of covariance with work experience as a covariate. The analysis provided support for the three-way interaction. This interaction suggests how one uses the CMS depends on self-gender, supervisor’s gender and the country where the parties live. Also, the covariate – work experience – was significantly associated with CMS.

One of the limitations of this study is that the authors collected data from a collegiate sample of employed management students in ten countries. There are significant implications for leading global teams and training programs for mid-level millennials.

There are various conflict situations where one conflict strategy may be more appropriate than others. Organizations may have to change their policies for recruiting employees who are more effective in conflict management.

Conflict management is not only important for managers but it is also important for all human beings. Individuals handle conflict every day and it would be really good if they could handle it effectively and improve their gains.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study has tested a three-way interaction of variables on CMS. This study has a wealth of information on CMS for global managers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of middle managers in the corporate entrepreneurship process that drives new capability development. Middle managers are highlighted as key entrepreneurial agents because of their special position in an organization.

The paper draws on existing capability development and corporate entrepreneurship literature and develops a conceptual model and research propositions that are illustrated through three examples from a Chinese private firm.

This paper contends the dual role of middle managers, both as change implementers to follow pre-set rules of an existing corporate entrepreneurship system and as change initiators to bring new rules to improve the existing system.

The paper is conceptual in nature, advancing the understanding of middle managers’ role in corporate entrepreneurship. The paper provides directions for future empirical research.

The interactions between middle managers and other organizational agents are discussed in the propositions. This paper suggests the importance of empowering middle managers to facilitate changes in complex internal environments.

The paper provides a unique theoretical contribution by introducing the interface-based, multi-level conceptual model of corporate entrepreneurship toward new capability development.