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Recent years have witnessed the popularity of social free sampling (SFS). That is, firms on social commerce platforms (e.g. Amazon Vine and Pconline Try) offer free sample products for consumers' applications, and the selected applicants are required to write a product trial report on the sites as a return. The main advantage of SFS is to leverage users' product trial reports to increase product exposure and attract prospective consumers. Thus, product trial reports play a central role in SFS. Despite that scholars have examined the rating bias of product trial reports in recent years' knowledge concerning how product trial reports influence user (i.e. readers of product trial reports) engagement remains sparse. To address the research gap, this paper aims to examine the drivers of user engagement with product trial reports.

This study utilized the Poisson regression model to analyze 3,419 trial reports collected from a well-known Chinese SFS site.

Based on the ELM model, the empirical results indicate that product rating, vividness, opinion balance, and reputation of the trial user are positively associated with user engagement. However, longer reports and reports with higher emotional intensity lead to weaker user engagement. Furthermore, product prices strengthen the positive impact of opinion balance but weaken the positive impact of trial users' reputations.

This study is among one of the first studies to investigate the impact of trial reports on user engagement in SFS. It yields actionable guidelines for SFS campaigns.

Empirical data on the impacts of entrepreneurial effectuation on firm performance are scattered and controversial. This study conducts a meta-analysis to obtain evidence on whether and under what conditions effectuation is valuable. A contextual framework is proposed that highlights the boundary condition of the performance impact of effectuation.

Both the traditional approach of meta-analysis and advanced techniques of Bayesian meta-analytic tests are used to combine numerous studies from varied research contexts.

Meta-analytic results show that effectuation generally has a positive impact on firm performance, and is context-dependent, leading to stronger performance for older firms and firms in high-tech industries and emerging countries.

The findings provide important implications for entrepreneurs who are considering applying effectuation. This study highlights that effectuation is context-dependent and the performance implications of effectuation are contingent on contextual factors at organizational, industrial and institutional levels. This study extends the contextual understanding of the effectuation–performance relationship.

This study aims to extend the temporal perspective on ambidexterity by investigating how and under what conditions top management team (TMT) temporal leadership improves innovation ambidexterity.

Using a questionnaire survey, data were collected from 165 small- and medium-sized enterprises in China. Ordinary least squares regression models were applied to test the hypotheses.

The findings show that TMT temporal leadership has a positive effect on innovation ambidexterity and temporal conflict mediates this relationship. Market dynamism and institutional support moderate the indirect effect of TMT temporal leadership on innovation ambidexterity.

Managers wishing to promote exploration and exploitation simultaneously should pay attention to the temporal aspects of their innovation strategy and improve their temporal leadership activities.

This study highlights the temporal conflicts in ambidexterity and clarifies the enabling role of TMT temporal leadership. It contributes new insights to the research on organizational ambidexterity and strategic leadership.

This paper aims to examine how a firm’s capability affects its political networking in emerging economies and how the institutional environment influences the relationship between a firm’s capability and its political networking.

The authors test the theoretical model by analyzing a database from a World Bank survey in China.

The results show a nonlinear (U-shaped) relationship between a firm’s capability and its efforts in political networking. The relationship between a firm’s capability and political networking is contingent on the institutional environment, as reflected in institutional development and industry regulation.

This study elucidates political networking in emerging economies and contributes to research on corporate political strategy.

This study extends the literature on top management team (TMT) diversity and innovation by introducing entrepreneurial passion diversity as an important TMT affective component in determining firm innovation performance. This paper draws on the knowledge-based view and proposes that TMT passion diversity, in terms of intensity separation and focus variety, may hinder the process of knowledge creation, and, in turn, reduce firm innovation performance.

The authors conduct a questionnaire survey using a simple random sampling technique and collect data from 195 small- and medium-sized enterprises in China. Ordinary least squares regression and a structural equation model are applied to test the hypotheses.

This study finds that TMT passion intensity separation has a negative effect on firm innovation performance via knowledge exchange and knowledge combination. TMT passion focus variety has a negative effect on firm innovation performance via knowledge combination.

This study highlights the affective diversity of entrepreneurial passion in TMTs and clarifies the detrimental role of TMT entrepreneurial passion diversity in innovation and knowledge creation. It contributes new insights to the literature on TMT diversity, knowledge management and entrepreneurial passion.

Oppositional brand loyalty (OBL) has become widespread and has thus received growing scholarly attention in recent years. Although opposition behaviors have distinct manifestations, their differential antecedents remain underexplored. Drawing from the identity-based motivation model, this article aims to examine the impact of brand identification and brand disidentification on the two distinct dimensions of OBL (i.e. brand avoidance and trash talk) according to their different intensity and activation levels (passive or active). In addition, article aims to examine the moderating role of perceived inter-group rivalry.

The authors collected survey data and obtained 392 valid questionnaires from smartphone users. Structural equation modeling was used for hypothesis testing.

The results show that brand identification has a significant positive effect on avoidance of rival brands, but not on trash talk; brand disidentification has a significant positive effect on both avoidance and trash talk of rival brands; and perceived inter-group rivalry positively moderates the relationship between brand disidentification and trash talk, but does not alter the relationship between brand disidentification and brand avoidance.

This study extends the literature on OBL by investigating differential antecedents of two distinct dimensions of brand opposition. It provides more complete understanding of the formation of OBL by examining the role of users’ relationship with a focal brand, its competing brand and inter-group relationship.

This study investigates business model innovation in small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) and its impact on firm growth.

The study was based on analyzing data collected through a questionnaire survey. Structural equation modeling was applied to test the hypotheses.

Business model innovation has a positive effect on SME growth in the manufacturing sectors. Moreover, growth is also achieved through the indirect effect of business model innovation on customer trust and commitment.

Managers will benefit from understanding how business model innovation can help their companies to overcome resource constraints and achieve sustained growth. When manufacturing SMEs engage in modular or structural changes to their business model, they may find it worthwhile to focus on maintaining a relationship of trust and commitment with their customers.

This study highlights business model innovation as a unique and important, yet underexplored, factor in manufacturing SME growth. The findings also untangle the complex processes of customer relationship management by which business model innovation improves manufacturing competitive advantage for SMEs.

Although the facilitating role of green customer integration in business-to-business (B2B) markets has been highlighted in some green product innovation literature, analysis of the difficulties it can pose is still an underdeveloped field. This paper extends the conflict-based view and examines the effect of green customer integration on customer–firm conflicts and thereby investigates the influence of conflict on green product innovation.

This study conducts a questionnaire survey. Ordinary Least Square regression and structural equation model with Maximum Likelihood Estimation are applied to test the hypotheses.

The results show that green customer information integration is positively related to cognitive conflict, whereas green customer process integration has an inverted U-shaped relationship with cognitive conflict and a positive relationship with affective conflict. Moreover, green product innovation is promoted by cognitive conflict and is damaged by affective conflict.

This study highlights the conflict-related factors that play a role in firm–customer collaboration for green product innovation in B2B markets. It also reveals the potential dark side of green customer integration by explicitly delineating its effects on conflicts.

Although prior research highlights the organizational and cognitive challenges associated with achieving innovation ambidexterity, comparatively limited attention has been paid to the affective characteristics that may differentiate top management teams (TMTs) of firms. The authors build on emerging research and identify TMT entrepreneurial passion diversity as an affective characteristic with particular relevance to innovation ambidexterity.

Based on data collected from 195 small- and medium-sized enterprises in China, this study uses ordinary least squares regression models to test the hypotheses.

The results show that TMT passion intensity separation is negatively related to innovation ambidexterity, while TMT passion focus variety has an inverted U-shaped relationship with innovation ambidexterity. In addition, environmental dynamism weakens the effects of TMT passion intensity separation and strengthens the effects of passion focus variety.

This study pushes forward the research agenda on affective microfoundations of innovation ambidexterity. It also reveals the potential dark side of TMT entrepreneurial passion by explicitly delineating its effects on innovation management.

Users' knowledge sharing provides valuable resources for brand community participants and is, therefore, critical for the viability of virtual brand communities. Drawing from both self-determination theory (SDT) and psychological ownership theory, the paper aims to investigate the impact of fulfillment of three basic psychological needs on brand users' knowledge-sharing behavior and examines psychological ownership as a mediator.

Survey data consisting of 316 valid responses were collected from users of Huawei Pollen Club Community. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed the reliability and validity of measures, and hierarchical linear regression and bootstrapping were used to test all hypotheses.

Fulfillment of the need for autonomy, relatedness and competence in a virtual brand community boosts users' psychological ownership and has a positive influence on their knowledge-sharing behavior. Furthermore, psychological ownership partially mediates the relationships between the fulfillment of psychological needs and knowledge-sharing behavior. In addition, the authors found that when users participate in more offline brand activities, the positive impact of the fulfillment of the need for relatedness on psychological ownership is strengthened, while the positive impact of the fulfillment of the need for autonomy on psychological ownership is weakened.

The paper contributes to the existing literature by exploring the relationships between fulfilling users' three basic psychological needs and their knowledge-sharing behavior through the mediating role of psychological ownership. The authors also provide insight into how offline brand activities interact with the fulfillment of psychological needs in virtual brand communities.