Explores, from an insider’s perspective, human resource’s (HR’s) critical role in establishing spirituality practice at the Guangxi Institute of Public Administration, for…
Abstract
Purpose
Explores, from an insider’s perspective, human resource’s (HR’s) critical role in establishing spirituality practice at the Guangxi Institute of Public Administration, for enhancing academics and administrative staff’ intrinsic satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
Describes the various forms of spiritual human resource management (HRM) practice that the Guangxi Institute of Public Administration applied in the workplace.
Findings
Reports that various forms of spiritual HRM practice could improve the organizational productivity through employees’ engagement; for example, increased use of initiative, helping each other, making constructive suggestions for team work, reducing individuals level of workload and conflict resolution.
Practical Implications
Explains that HR managers could develop a highly committed and productive workplace through designing various forms of spiritual HRM practice, including connecting employees with nature by building natural featured campus and bringing in plants at workplace, encouraging employees to take exercise and/or breaks to develop their physical and spiritual wellness, celebrating important milestones and achievements, organizing informal teams to get to know each other better (hobbies, likes and dislikes), decorating office with employee-made art, acknowledging employees’ creative expression and promoting feelings of egalitarianism.
Originality/value
Offers interesting details of spiritual HRM practice, from an insider’s perspective, in a Chinese context.
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Shanshan Zhang, Zhiqiang Wang, Xiande Zhao and Min Zhang
The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the effects of institutional support on product and process innovation and firm performance and describe how dysfunctional…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the effects of institutional support on product and process innovation and firm performance and describe how dysfunctional competition influences relevant outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
This study develops a research model based on institution-based view and tests it using structural equation modeling and empirical data collected from 300 manufacturers in China.
Findings
The results show that institutional support positively affects product and process innovation and firm performance. Both product and process innovation improve firm performance. The findings reveal that dysfunctional competition significantly reduces the positive effects of institutional support on product and process innovation but leaves the effects of institutional support and product and process innovation on firm performance unaffected.
Originality/value
This study contributes to innovation literature by providing insights into the impact of China’s institutional environment on manufacturing firms’ product and process innovation decisions. The findings also contribute to institution-based view literature by providing empirical evidence on the joint effects of institutional support and dysfunctional competition on product and process innovation and firm performance. This study can help manufacturers in China take advantage of institutional environment and adjust product and process innovation decisions accordingly.
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Zhiqiang Wang, Qiang Wang, Xiande Zhao, Marjorie A. Lyles and Guilong Zhu
Chinese firms were operating within a closed economic environment before the “opening up” in the late 1970s, but it has only been in the late 1990s that China has recognized the…
Abstract
Purpose
Chinese firms were operating within a closed economic environment before the “opening up” in the late 1970s, but it has only been in the late 1990s that China has recognized the importance of innovation. The Chinese government has attempted to rectify this liability by providing funding to assist Chinese firms in developing innovation capability by increasing R&D collaborations and employing external experts. The purpose of this paper is to study the innovation of Chinese firms by examining how internal and external resources interactively impact the innovation capability.
Design/methodology/approach
Panel data collected from Chinese manufacturers are used to test the hypothesized relationships.
Findings
The results have shown that the interplay between internal and external resources exhibits differential patterns of impact on innovation capability. The authors discover different moderating patterns of the two types of external resources: visiting experts are helpful in enhancing the effects of internal human resources, while R&D collaborations are useful in exploiting internal financial and physical resources, even when the main effect of financial resources on innovation capability is not significant.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidences on the roles of absorbed external resources and knowledge to catalyze internal resources in building up innovation capability in an emerging economy.
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Lixu Li, Zhiqiang Wang, Lujie Chen, Xiande Zhao and Shuili Yang
Although supply chain collaboration (SCC) theoretically boosts the adoption of supply chain finance (SCF) through information sharing and cost savings, many companies with good…
Abstract
Purpose
Although supply chain collaboration (SCC) theoretically boosts the adoption of supply chain finance (SCF) through information sharing and cost savings, many companies with good supply chain partnerships still hesitate to engage in SCF. To disentangle this puzzle, this study aims to explore how two dimensions of information transparency (i.e. information quantity and information quality) and two types of transaction dependence (i.e. dependence on suppliers and dependence on customers) influence the relationship between SCC and SCF adoption.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses secondary survey data from a Chinese bank, including 464 Chinese companies that have adopted SCF to varying degrees. This study then performs the logistic regression analysis to test the hypotheses.
Findings
This study empirically confirms that SCC shows a positive relationship with SCF adoption. More interestingly, information quantity negatively moderates this positive relationship, whereas information quality positively moderates this positive relationship. Most surprisingly, dependence on customers rather than dependence on suppliers strengthens this positive relationship.
Originality/value
This study makes theoretical contributions to the SCF literature by demonstrating the distinct moderating mechanisms regarding the relationship between SCC and SCF adoption. The findings also help companies reexamine their interactions with supply chain members.
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Shanshan Zhang, Zhiqiang Wang, Xiande Zhao and Jinyu Yang
Drawing upon relative absorptive capacity (AC) perspective, this study proposes a research model connecting R&D investment, three types of supply chain AC—AC from suppliers…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing upon relative absorptive capacity (AC) perspective, this study proposes a research model connecting R&D investment, three types of supply chain AC—AC from suppliers, customers and university and research institutes (U&RIs)—and firm innovativeness and investigates the contingent effects of dysfunctional competition on the link between R&D investment and supply chain AC.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used data collected from 262 manufacturers in three areas of China to empirically examine the conceptual model. The corresponding hypotheses were tested with structural equation modeling and regression analysis.
Findings
The empirical results demonstrate that AC from customers and AC from U&RIs play significant mediating roles in the relationship between R&D investment and firm innovativeness. Moreover, R&D investment has a significantly greater effect on AC from U&RIs under high levels of dysfunctional competition.
Originality/value
First, by conceptualizing AC from a relative view, this study discloses the unique roles of knowledge from different supply chain partners in realizing the benefits of R&D investment in innovation. Second, the exploration of the contingent roles of dysfunctional competition in the emerging economy of China enriches insights on the roles of institutional environment on knowledge absorption and the knowledge on relative AC in emerging economies.
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Lixu Li, Zhiqiang Wang and Xiande Zhao
Although supply chain finance (SCF) aims to optimize capital flows in the supply chain process, its effectiveness in improving cost performance remains controversial. From the…
Abstract
Purpose
Although supply chain finance (SCF) aims to optimize capital flows in the supply chain process, its effectiveness in improving cost performance remains controversial. From the perspective of efficiency motives, this study aims to explore how the combinations of SCF solutions and traditional financing instruments lead to supply chain cost reduction.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed-method approach is used in this study. First, using the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), the authors analyze 405 survey data across four industries in China and identify the configurations of financing instruments for supply chain cost reduction. Second, to better understand the reasons behind each configuration, the authors conduct the content analysis on the interview data composed of 24 Chinese companies.
Findings
The authors find that the effectiveness of SCF solutions for supply chain cost reduction is related to the focal company's use of traditional financing instruments. Moreover, compared with guaranteed financing, companies that use credit financing are more likely to adopt SCF solutions to achieve supply chain cost reduction. Finally, the effectiveness of SCF solutions in reducing supply chain costs varies greatly across industries.
Practical implications
The study’s findings provide insights for policymakers and SCF practitioners in the aspects of simplifying the SCF application.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the current literature by addressing the theory–practice gap related to SCF. The study also provides new understandings of factors related to supply chain cost reduction, as well as factors that influence SCF adoption.
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Yuying Wu, Min Zhang and Zhiqiang Wang
This study empirically investigates the impacts of technological innovation and operational efficiency on environmental performance and the moderating effects of environmental…
Abstract
Purpose
This study empirically investigates the impacts of technological innovation and operational efficiency on environmental performance and the moderating effects of environmental orientation.
Design/methodology/approach
We develop a conceptual framework based on the Porter Hypothesis. We collect a sample of 850 listed firms in China between 2010 and 2019. The fixed effect model was used to analyse the data.
Findings
The empirical findings reveal that technological innovation indirectly enhances environmental performance through operational efficiency and partially mediates this impact. We also find that environmental orientation strengthens the positive impacts of technological innovation and operational efficiency on environmental performance.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature by revealing that technological innovation is positively associated with operational efficiency and environmental performance, which suggests that technological innovation can simultaneously enhance business and environmental performance. Hence, this study provides empirical support for the Porter Hypothesis. The results also extend the Porter Hypothesis by revealing how technological innovation affects environmental performance and under what conditions technological innovation has a greater impact on environmental performance.
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Ying Li, Qiang Wang, Zhiqiang Wang and Lujie Chen
The purpose of this study is to examine both the separate effects and the interaction effects of business process improvement (BPI) and human resource enhancement (HRE) on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine both the separate effects and the interaction effects of business process improvement (BPI) and human resource enhancement (HRE) on operational performance in manufacturing firms and to examine the moderating effect of product life cycle (PLC).
Design/methodology/approach
The conceptual model was based on the resource-based view, the dynamic capabilities perspective and contingency theory. Using survey data from 215 manufacturing companies and structural equation modeling, the hypothesized relationships were tested.
Findings
The empirical findings suggest that the performance implications of HRE and the interaction of HRE and BPI are contingent on PLC. HRE and its interaction with BPI have stronger effects on operational performance in the maturity stage than in the growth stage. The effect of BPI on operational performance is equally important in both stages of PLC.
Practical implications
The results of this empirical study can help to guide manufacturing firms to enhance their performance through improvements in their business processes and human resources at the different life cycle stages of their products. First, firms should upgrade both their processes and people to keep pace with the changing business environment and to sustain their competitive advantage. Second, the performance implications of improving processes and people are contingent on PLC, which suggests that managers should emphasize different things according to their roles.
Originality/value
A simultaneous examination of the performance implications of HRE and BPI practices and their contingencies reveals the roles that people and processes play in achieving organizational objectives. The results contribute to our understanding of how firms leverage their resource allocation between processes and people at different stages of PLC to effectively improve their performance.
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Min Zhang, Yinan Qi, Zhiqiang Wang, Kulwant S. Pawar and Xiande Zhao
Intellectual capital reflects the sum of existing knowledge a manufacturer is able to leverage and plays a critical role in new product development. The purpose of this paper is…
Abstract
Purpose
Intellectual capital reflects the sum of existing knowledge a manufacturer is able to leverage and plays a critical role in new product development. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the mechanisms through which intellectual capital enhances product innovation performance and how economic and institutional environments affect the mechanisms.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a knowledge-based view and institutional theory, this study proposes a model on the relationships among intellectual capital, supplier knowledge integration, supply chain adaptability, and product innovation performance. The hypotheses are empirically tested using multiple group structural equation modelling and data collected from 300 Chinese and 200 Indian manufacturers.
Findings
The authors find that intellectual capital improves product innovation performance both directly and indirectly through supplier knowledge integration. However, the effects are different in China and India. In particular, the direct effect of intellectual capital on product innovation performance is significantly higher in China than that in India, and intellectual capital improves product innovation performance indirectly through supplier knowledge integration only in India. The authors also find that supplier knowledge integration improves product innovation performance indirectly through supply chain adaptability in both China and India.
Originality/value
Using a moderated mediation model, this study provides insights into the joint effects of intellectual capital, supplier knowledge integration, and supply chain adaptability on product innovation performance. The findings enhance current understandings of how supply chain management helps a manufacturer develop new products using existing knowledge and the influences of economic and institutional environments on knowledge and supply chain management.
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Lixu Li, Yeming Gong, Zhiqiang Wang and Shan Liu
Although big data may enhance the visibility, transparency, and responsiveness of supply chains, whether it is effective for improving supply chain performance in a turbulent…
Abstract
Purpose
Although big data may enhance the visibility, transparency, and responsiveness of supply chains, whether it is effective for improving supply chain performance in a turbulent environment, especially in mitigating the impact of COVID-19, is unclear. The research question the authors addressed is: How do logistics firms improve the supply chain performance in COVID-19 through big data and supply chain integration (SCI)?
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a mixed-method approach with four rounds of data collection. A three-round survey of 323 logistics firms in 26 countries in Europe, America, and Asia was first conducted. The authors then conducted in-depth interviews with 55 logistics firms.
Findings
In the first quantitative study, the authors find mediational mechanisms through which big data analytics technology capability (BDATC) and SCI influence supply chain performance. In particular, BDATC and SCI are two second-order capabilities that help firms develop three first-order capabilities (i.e. proactive capabilities, reactive capabilities, and resource reconfiguration) and eventually lead to innovation capability and disaster immunity that allow firms to survive in COVID-19 and improve supply chain performance. The results of the follow-up qualitative analysis not only confirm the inferences from the quantitative analysis but also provide complementary insights into organizational culture and the institutional environment.
Originality/value
The authors contribute to supply chain risk management by developing a three-level hierarchy of capabilities framework and finding a mechanism with the links between big data and big disaster. The authors also provide managerial implications for logistics firms to address the new management challenges posed by COVID-19.