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1 – 10 of over 10000Xianchuan Yang, Yin Ma and Jiashi Han
The purpose of this paper is to identify the influence of product information on purchase intention and evaluate the moderated mediation effect of return policy leniency in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the influence of product information on purchase intention and evaluate the moderated mediation effect of return policy leniency in cross-border e-commerce.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology is to use multiple regression analysis on 406 qualified online survey responses to determine the influence of product description, product display, and product content on consumer purchasing intention through product involvement as well as the moderated mediation effect of return policy leniency.
Findings
The results show that product description and product content were positively associated with product involvement, while product display did not exhibit a significant relationship between it and product involvement. As hypothesized, product involvement mediated the relationship of product description and product content with consumer purchasing intention. The return policy leniency was also found to positively moderate the mediation path of product content on purchasing intention through product involvement.
Originality/value
This study bridges a gap in the literature on the influence of three kinds of product information on purchasing intention through product involvement in a cross-border e-commerce context. Especially the study is one of the first attempts to determine that good return policy do not apply universally due to implied boundary conditions. The results can be used to expand consumption in cross-border e-commerce.
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Yin Ma, P.M. Nimmi, Maria Mouratidou and William E. Donald
This study aims to explore the impact of engaging in serious leisure (SL) on the well-being (WB) and self-perceived employability (PE) of university students while also…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the impact of engaging in serious leisure (SL) on the well-being (WB) and self-perceived employability (PE) of university students while also considering the role of career adaptability (CA) as a mediator.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 905 domestic undergraduate students from China completed an online survey.
Findings
The findings reveal that participation in SL positively influences WB and PE. Additionally, the results indicate that CA mediates the SL-WB relationship but not the SL-PE relationship.
Originality/value
The theoretical contribution of this research comes from advancing our understanding of sustainable career theory through empirical testing of SL, PE, and CA on WB outcomes within a higher education setting. The practical implications of this study involve providing universities with strategies to support domestic Chinese undergraduate students in enhancing their WB and PE through active engagement in SL pursuits and the development of CA. Moreover, our findings serve as a foundation for future research investigating whether insights gained from domestic Chinese undergraduate students can provide solutions on a global scale to address the persistent challenges of improving student WB and PE.
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Maria Mouratidou, William E. Donald, Nimmi P. Mohandas and Yin Ma
Drawing on a framework of conservation of resources theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between self-perceived academic performance and individual…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on a framework of conservation of resources theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between self-perceived academic performance and individual entrepreneurial intention and consider the potential moderating role of (1) participation in serious leisure, (2) perceived stress and/or (3) gender.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 405 UK-based undergraduates completed the questionnaire, with a representative gender split of 57% women and 43% men.
Findings
The positive relationship between self-perceived academic performance and individual entrepreneurial intention was moderated by serious leisure (stronger when participation in serious leisure increased) and by perceived stress (stronger when levels of perceived stress were lower). However, contrary to our expectations, gender had no statistically significant moderating role.
Practical implications
The practical contribution comes from informing policy for universities and national governments to increase individual entrepreneurial intention in undergraduates.
Originality/value
The theoretical contribution comes from advancing conservation of resources theory, specifically the interaction of personal resources, resource caravans and resource passageways.
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Yin Ma and Dawn Bennett
With a focus on Chinese higher education students, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between students' perceived employability and their levels of academic…
Abstract
Purpose
With a focus on Chinese higher education students, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between students' perceived employability and their levels of academic engagement and stress.
Design/methodology/approach
The study engaged 1,155 students from three universities in China. Students responded to an online survey, reporting their confidence in relation to their perceived employability, academic engagement and stress in life. The authors employed structural equation modelling to explore students' confidence in each employability attribute and to assess perceived employability relation to academic engagement and perceived stress.
Findings
The results suggest that self-perceptions of employability are positively associated with students' academic engagement and negatively associated with perceived stress. Perceived employability mediated the majority paths.
Originality/value
This is one of the few studies to examine perceived employability in line with academic engagement or stress and the first study to do so in China.
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Nan Wang, Jielin Yin, Zhenzhong Ma and Maolin Liao
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…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Practical implications
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.
Originality/value
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.
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Carry Mak, Robin Stanley Snell and Jacky Hong
The purpose of this paper is to investigate Peter Senge’s ideas from the perspective of the spiritual ideal of harmony/He (和).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate Peter Senge’s ideas from the perspective of the spiritual ideal of harmony/He (和).
Design/methodology/approach
Following a literature review of the conceptualization of Senge’s fifth discipline and harmony, an appreciative case study of Alibaba is adopted to demonstrate the role of harmony in guiding the transformative application of the five disciplines of the learning organization.
Findings
In developing as a learning organization, Alibaba is portrayed as having embraced three levels of harmony: person-within-oneself, person-to-others and person-to-nature harmony. The authors identify three equivalencies between Senge’s disciplines and the traditional Chinese ideal of harmony. First, personal mastery and metal models correspond to developing person-within-oneself harmony. Second, team learning and shared vision entail developing person-to-others harmony. Third, systems thinking aligns with person-to-nature harmony.
Practical implications
The case study demonstrates various approaches that can be used to foster the development of person-within-oneself, person-to-others and person-to-nature harmony within an aspiring learning organization.
Originality/value
This paper shows how core values of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, distilled into the Chinese ideal of harmony, can encourage the cultivation of learning organizations.
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Giacomo Pigatto, Lino Cinquini, Andrea Tenucci and John Dumay
This study aims to explore the serendipitous discovery of integrated reporting (IR) by Alpha, an Italian small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). Alpha piqued the curiosity when…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the serendipitous discovery of integrated reporting (IR) by Alpha, an Italian small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). Alpha piqued the curiosity when the authors discovered that it experimented with IR alongside other management accounting practices, such as the Balanced Scorecard. As the authors reflected on Alpha’s experiences, the authors had to opportunistically develop a new framework to understand the change that was taking place at Alpha fully. Thus, the authors developed the serendipitous drift framework. This study contributes to addressing the gap between management accounting research that sees change as a planned, ordered process versus research that sees it as an unmanageable drift.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors ground the research on a qualitative methodology based on a single case study. This methodology allows us to focus on understanding what has happened at Alpha to discover new themes and provide theoretical generalisations. The authors developed the framework using middle-range thinking and fleshed it out using empirical findings from the case study. Middle-range thinking implies going back and forth between the theory and the empirical material. Therefore, the authors develop the serendipitous drift framework from prior theories and use it to inform the empirical study. In turn, the empirical material collected in Alpha helps refine and flesh out the serendipitous drift framework. The framework explains how Alpha leveraged serendipity to steer change towards favourable outcomes for them.
Findings
The authors find that the search for change undertaken by Alpha’s managers was non-specific but purposeful. Their dispositions were sagacious enough to recognise the potential value found in management accounting practices, such as IR and the Balanced Scorecard. They chanced upon new and unforeseen practices through trial and error, iteration, internal engagement and networking.
Research limitations/implications
Overall, the results indicate that Alpha’s managers shaped the disorder of management accounting changes, even though it followed unexpected, uncertain and messy paths. Indeed, appropriate informal controls can act as a frame of reference for choosing, adapting and implementing new management accounting practices to shape the disorder. Informal controls can both guide and bound the experimentation process towards desirable outcomes.
Originality/value
The authors contribute to management accounting change theory by developing a framework rooted in serendipity and drifting theories. The framework identifies how searching, sagacity and chance are essential for making positive, unexpected discoveries. Therefore, the authors provide novel insights on how and why IR and other management accounting practices are eventually translated and adopted in the case company. Moreover, the serendipitous drift framework has the potential to help managers frame cultural controls to actively seek opportunities for valuable serendipitous eureka moments through networking and experimentation.
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Leonardo B. Barbosa, Jorge Carneiro, Camila Costa, Filip De Beule, Rafael Goldszmidt and T. Diana Macedo-Soares
Through a systematic review of the literature, this study analyzes the empirical literature on the adoption of environmental sustainability strategies in order to identify (i) the…
Abstract
Through a systematic review of the literature, this study analyzes the empirical literature on the adoption of environmental sustainability strategies in order to identify (i) the main conceptual aspects by which environmental sustainability strategies can be conceived of, (ii) the main determinants of the adoption of such strategies, (iii) the expected impacts on the company’s international performance, as well as (iv) the mechanisms that mediate the effect of environmental sustainability strategies on international performance. This study thereby offers propositions about the relationships between environmental sustainability strategies, their determinants (both in relation to the institutional environment and to the company’s domain), and their performance implications.
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Yaoyao Ma, Qiang Miao, Wenping Liang, Haiyang Yu, Mengjuan Yin, Kai Zang, Xueqing Pang and Xianfeng Wang
The purpose of this paper is to obtain the optimal N2/Ar ratio parameters for preparing Ta (C, N) coating. Three coatings with different N2/Ar ratios were prepared on the TA15…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to obtain the optimal N2/Ar ratio parameters for preparing Ta (C, N) coating. Three coatings with different N2/Ar ratios were prepared on the TA15 substrate, and their effects on the wear properties of the coatings were discussed.
Design/methodology/approach
Ta(C, N) coatings with three different N2/Ar ratios were prepared on TA15 substrates using the double cathode glow metallurgical plasma alloying technique (DGMPA) using a step-by-step diffusion method.
Findings
With the increase of N2/Ar flow ratio, the hardness and elastic modulus of the coating first increase and then decrease. Compared with the S1 sample (N2/Ar gas ratio 25: 75) and the S3 sample (N2/Ar gas ratio 75: 25), the S2 sample (N2/Ar gas ratio 50: 50) has better mechanical properties, with hardness increased by 48.45% and 6.8%, respectively, and elastic strain ratio increased by 22.8% and 28.5%, respectively. Moreover, the wear degree of the S2 sample is less than other samples. The wear rate of the S2 sample was 32.4% lower than the S3 sample at 300°C and 14.3% lower than the S3 sample at 500°C. Therefore, the S2 sample has the best mechanical properties and the best high temperature wear resistance.
Originality/value
Ta(C, N) coatings were prepared by DGMPA technology, and the wear mechanism of Ta(C, N) coatings with different N2/Ar ratios was investigated to reduce the wear rate.
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Zhixiang Yin, Jianzhong Cui, Yan Yang, Yin Ma, Wei Wang, Jin Yang and Xia Sun
The bottleneck of current DNA computing paradigms based on brute‐force search strategy is that initial solution space grows exponentially with problem size, thus only trivial…
Abstract
Purpose
The bottleneck of current DNA computing paradigms based on brute‐force search strategy is that initial solution space grows exponentially with problem size, thus only trivial instances of NP‐complete problem can be solved. The purpose of this paper is to present a novel molecular program based on sticker models for solving dominating set problems.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors do not synthesize the initial solution pool containing every possible candidate solution as previously reported algorithm. Instead, solutions DNA molecules to the problem of interest are constructed during the course of computation.
Findings
It is shown that “exponential explosions” inherent in current DNA computing paradigms may be overcome in this way.
Originality/value
The paper proposes an error‐resistant DNA algorithm based on sticker model for solving minimum dominating problems.
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