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In today's competitive business environment, understanding how leadership traits shape outcomes is critical. Chief executive officer (CEO) narcissism, an intriguing and debated trait, raises questions about its impact on organisational behaviour, particularly regarding entrepreneurial orientation (EO). This study aims to examine how CEO narcissism affects EO, both as aggregate and specific measures, encompassing internal and external growth. It also considers the organisational context by examining how factors such as capital intensity, firm ownership and CEO duality moderate this relationship.

To test the hypotheses, the authors used a sample of firms drawn from China's ChiNext database (2008–2017). After an initial screening, the final sample consists of 251 CEOs from 239 companies. Data on CEO narcissism are collected from the firm's official website and major online sources, whilst additional data are extracted from the WIND daabase. The authors use multiple regression and ordinary least squares (OLS) for data analysis.

The results show that CEO narcissism leads to external asset growth investments but not internal research and development (R&D). There is a positive relationship between CEO narcissism and EO as an aggregate measure and also different managerial discretions play varying roles in the relationship. Specifically, capital intensity weakens this relationship, but state ownership strengthens it.

This study helps to clarify the relationship between CEO narcissism and EO and advances the literature by showing that firms' EO actions may take various forms of innovation and venturing as new entry initiations of EO. The study findings have important implications for firms to capitalise on narcissistic CEOs' entrepreneurial tendencies, balance internal R&D and external asset growth and leverage various managerial discretions.

This study aims to investigate how long commutes negatively affect employees’ creative deviance at work, exploring the mediating role that impaired work–life balance plays in linking commute to restricted creative deviance, as well as examining whether access to flexible work arrangements can alleviate commuting’s detrimental indirect effects.

This study employed a three-wave survey methodology conducted over monthly intervals with 246 participants in China’s Pearl River Delta region. Rigorous screening ensured a demographically diverse sample.

Commuting time negatively affects creative deviance, both directly and indirectly through work–life balance. Flexible work arrangements mitigate the adverse effects of long commutes on work–life balance, subsequently weakening the indirect effect of commuting time on creative deviance through work–life balance.

A holistic approach is suggested for organizations aiming to foster a supportive and ethical work environment, which involves a combination of organizational policies, leadership practices and individual actions to promote both creativity and employee welfare.

This research breaks new ground by identifying commuting time as a key factor influencing creative deviance in the workplace, mediated by work–life balance. It integrates transportation research with organizational behavior, applying an ethics of care perspective to challenge traditional paradigms. The study’s interdisciplinary approach, bridging multiple fields, provides a novel, holistic view of how non-work factors impact workplace innovation.

This study aims to explore the impact of ethical leadership on employee creative deviance, with job autonomy as a mediator and creative self-efficacy as a moderator between job autonomy and creative deviance.

A survey was developed based on construct measures from the literature. A total of 316 responses were received from employees of information and communication technology companies located in China's Pearl River Delta.

Both ethical leadership and job autonomy have a positive impact on employee creative deviance; job autonomy plays a mediating role between ethical leadership and creative deviance; creative self-efficacy does not have a significant moderating effect on the job autonomy-creative deviance relationship.

Future studies could explore the potential moderating role of both job autonomy and creative-self efficacy in the link between ethical leadership and creative deviance.

This study recommends that organizations should adopt and promote an ethical leadership approach to manage creative deviance at work. Organizations could explore alternative methods of task completion to support the job autonomy for the employees to mitigate the dilemmas associated with creative deviance.

This is one of few studies that examine the impact of ethical leadership on employee's creative deviance, despite the fact that the influence of ethical leadership on the followers has been extensively examined.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the mechanisms through which green HRM practices foster green creativity among employees. Specifically, it tests a conceptual model linking green HRM practices to green creativity, with employee thriving at work as a mediator and creative leadership as a moderator strengthening the links.

The study collected survey data from 319 employees working in the financial, internet and IT sectors in the developed coastal regions of China. The conceptual model and hypotheses were tested using this sample focused on sustainability-oriented sectors based in regions with imperative ecological needs and priorities.

The findings indicate that thriving at work (characterized by vitality and learning) mediates between green HRM practices and green creativity. In addition, creative leadership was found to moderate the impact of green HRM on both thriving and green creativity, including the indirect effects through thriving.

The study breaks new ground by being the first to examine the mediation of thriving at work and the moderation of creative leadership in connecting green HRM to green creativity. It develops and tests an integrated theoretical framework that combines insights from self-determination theory and creative leadership theory, situates the research in the timely and relevant context of China’s developed coastal areas and key industries and offers new insights and practical implications for fostering green creativity and aligning organizational strategies with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Prior studies have consistently shown that leader psychological capital is beneficial for leader–member exchange (LMX) and followers’ outcomes. In this study, the authors challenge this consensus; they propose that a leader with high-level psychological capital may decrease LMX and promote followers’ turnover intention when encountering a follower with low-level psychological capital. Only congruent psychological capital in leader–follower dyads increases LMX and decreases turnover intention.

A two-wave survey was designed to collect data from a sample of 207 leader–follower dyads in the service industries of China. Polynomial regression combined with the response surface analysis was used to test the hypotheses.

(1) LMX increased when the levels of psychological capital between leaders and followers were congruent, but LMX suffered when they were not congruent (e.g. leaders’ psychological capital was higher than followers’ or otherwise); (2) in the conditions of psychological capital congruence, LMX was higher when a leader’s and a follower’s psychological capital were both high than low; (3) LMX mediated the relationship between psychological capital congruence and followers’ turnover intention.

These findings provide a novel perspective on understanding of the function of psychological capital and its implications for turnover management.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of natural resources, market size and five major institutional factors (voice and accountability; political stability and absence of violence; regulatory quality; rule of law and control of corruption) on Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa.

This study uses regression analysis on panel data across 22 countries for the period 2008-2014.

Natural resources did not play a significant role in attracting Chinese investments, but market size did. Among the institutional factors, only voice and accountability had a significant and positive effect on attracting Chinese FDI; the effects of rule of law and control of corruption were not significant and political stability and regulatory quality had a significant and negative effect.

Chinese investment in Africa is only a recent phenomenon, and is growing rapidly; further studies should examine factors that are unique to the context such as bilateral political link.

African countries that are struggling with improving their poor institutional quality in the short term could effectively attract Chinese investment by reducing investor psychic distance, e.g. establishing a closer political link with China. Nevertheless, in the long term, measures of improving institutional quality are important.

This study reveals for the first time that what attracts Chinese investment is market size rather than natural resources, and different institutional factors of an African country show varying effects on attracting Chinese FDI.

The purpose of this study is to examine how subjective knowledge about fair trade products and the perceived trustworthiness of information about fair trade goods influence purchase intention and reported purchase behaviour across two product categories, namely, fashion and food.

Data were collected from an online survey with a sample of 1,616 consumers in four European countries, namely, Germany, Italy, Austria and the UK.

The results show that subjective knowledge moderates the positive relationship between intentions to purchase and reported purchase behaviour of fair trade products, however, the moderating role of perceived information trustworthiness was not significant. Furthermore, both the intention to purchase and reported purchase behaviour are significantly lower for fair trade fashion products than for fair trade food products.

This paper shows how fair trade consumption behaviour is mainly influenced by subjective knowledge about fair trade products. It reveals existing differences in both the buying intentions and reported purchase behaviour in different European markets.

This research broadens the understanding of consumers’ fair trade consumption behaviour across two different product categories and four different countries, with a focus on the interaction effect of consumers’ subjective knowledge and information trustworthiness.

Graduate employability is a key concern for many observers particularly at a time when education is increasingly available for the masses. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of graduate perceived employability on job search by integrating theory of planned behavior and to identify how job search self-efficacy, subjective norms, intention and intensity change over time.

Data were collected from a six-wave survey study with a sample of Chinese university graduating students.

Results show that perceived employability has a positive and significant effect on job search self-efficacy, attitude, intention and intensity; and that all the repeated measuring variables (except job search attitude) decreased over time.

The study is useful for educators, employers and prospective students. It prompts discussion of reforms in the curriculum to increase graduate awareness of the complexity of the job search process and existing opportunities. The study could also help to explain how job search behavior changes over time.

The findings carry implications for both higher education research and the measures of improving graduate employability. The study fills the gap in the literature by integrating employability and the theory of planned behavior into one framework in order to analyze the process of Chinese university graduates’ job search behavior.

The study examines how human resource management practices (HRMPs) – including ability practice, motivation practice and opportunity practice – affect employee well-being (EWB) – including life well-being, job well-being and psychological well-being – in the Chinese cultural context.

A sample of 529 employees from various industries in China participated in the survey for this study. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The findings indicate that HRMPs have a significant positive effect on EWB. Specifically, practices based on ability, motivation and opportunity have a significant positive effect on job well-being, life well-being and psychological well-being, respectively. Integrity leadership moderates the impact of HRMPs on EWB. Organizational justice has a partial mediating effect on the relationship between HRMPs and EWB. Integrity leadership moderates the mediation effect of organizational justice in the relationship between HRMPs and EWB.

Human resource policies and practices need to create a fair organizational atmosphere, and managers implementing them must have integrity leadership. When selecting and promoting managers, organizations should pay attention to not only a candidate's ability but also his or her integrity.

This study uncovers how the important roles of organizational justice and integrity leadership act on the relationship between HRMPs and EWB, thus advancing our understanding of how HRMPs can effectively increase EWB.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and redefine the “classic” roles of shop floor management and quality control circles (QCCs) in Kaizen. In specific, it aims to examine the linkage between shop floor management and QCCs, and test the relationships among shop floor management, QCCs and long-term Kaizen improvement outcomes.

This study employs qualitative method by using a questionnaire to obtain data from 371 respondents in nine Sino-Japanese automotive joint-ventures. The data are analysed with the method of canonical correlation approach.

The study identifies important factors to assist the adoption of shop floor management and QCCs for Kaizen. The analysis on the survey indicates that not all the shop floor management tools could help to identify improvement opportunities. QCCs are effective in addressing large problems and challenging current policies in companies, however, they have low impacts on individual learning.

The data of this study come from nine Sino-Japanese automotive joint ventures. Therefore, the sample selection is limited to these companies. The findings are able to be applied for improving the similar problems which were identified in this study.

The study has the following practical implications, first is small shop floor problems can be identified and solved rapidly and continuously at source by shop floor management. The second one is QCCs, or other similar group-based improvement approaches take long to be fully addressed and implemented. Third, practical solutions can be achieved from small and gradual changes, and they can prevent the results backsliding to the pre-improvement stage. Finally, QCCs are hardly to achieve a better improvement alone. It requires other Kaizen approaches to support.

This study is probably the first to explore and investigate the implementation of the four building block tools of shop floor management in real business practise, and more specific the first to discuss the relationship among shop floor management, QCCs and long-term improvement outcomes based on empirical data from Sino-Japanese automotive joint-ventures.