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1 – 10 of 262Liang Zhang, Zhe Zhang, Ming Jia and Yeyao Ren
The effect of prestigious CEOs on firm performance is not clear. By integrating resource dependence and agency theories, this paper aims to focus on how prestigious CEOs affect…
Abstract
Purpose
The effect of prestigious CEOs on firm performance is not clear. By integrating resource dependence and agency theories, this paper aims to focus on how prestigious CEOs affect firm performance and how informal relations between the CEO and outside directors affect agency costs and resource benefits associated with prestigious CEOs.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to analyze their data set, which is conducted by a sample of 4,226 Chinese listed firms from 2009 to 2013. The authors also use OLS regression to assess the sensitivity and robustness of their findings.
Findings
The findings indicate that prestigious CEOs are significantly and positively associated with firm performance. Moreover, the authors find the effect of prestigious CEOs on firm performance is more pronounced when prestigious outside directors interact with prestigious CEOs. Guanxi – a Chinese concept similar to camaraderie – attenuates this association, particularly when the CEO and outside directors share the same surname.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should consider whether there is a mediating link between prestigious affiliates (i.e. CEOs) and firm performance.
Practical/implications
This paper provides two practical implications. First, China Securities Regulatory Commission policymakers should pay more attention to outside directors’ quality and ability and their informal guanxi with the CEO. Second, prestigious CEOs may also have potential costs.
Originality/value
This study contributes to corporate governance literature and CEO-board relations literature by shedding light on how resource dependence and agency theories apply to corporate governance.
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Chang Chen, Zhe Zhang and Ming Jia
The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of stretch goals on unethical behavior and explore the mediating role of ambivalent identification and moderating role of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of stretch goals on unethical behavior and explore the mediating role of ambivalent identification and moderating role of competitive psychological climate.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 350 MBA students from Northwestern China completed the two-phase survey. The bootstrapping analysis outlined by Hayes was used to assess a moderated mediation model.
Findings
This study found that stretch goals could trigger employees' unethical behavior via ambivalent identification. Competitive psychological climate intensified the relationship between stretch goals and ambivalent identification. Moreover, such a climate aggravated the indirect effect of stretch goals on unethical behavior via ambivalent identification.
Practical implications
Organizations and managers should use stretch goals prudently and implement measures to reduce the ethical cost.
Originality/value
This study provides unique contributions by identifying ambivalent identification as an important mediator and competitive psychological climate as a boundary condition of stretch goals' disruptive effect on unethical behavior.
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Chenyan Gu, Zhe Zhang and Yuansi Hou
To investigate the psychological mechanism of observational learning in the online retailing context, the purpose of this paper is to show how the psychological distance between…
Abstract
Purpose
To investigate the psychological mechanism of observational learning in the online retailing context, the purpose of this paper is to show how the psychological distance between consumers and products affects modes of observational learning.
Design/methodology/approach
Five experimental studies are conducted to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The findings show that which modes of observational learning are adopted by consumers is affected by consumers’ psychological distance. Specifically, when the psychological distance between consumers and products is proximal, consumers tend to adopt the termed adequate observational learning mode by considering the interaction of information about popularity and the breadth of appeal of a product to make purchase. However, when the psychological distance is distal, consumers would consider information of popularity and breadth of appeal separately without considering the interaction, termed as inadequate observational learning mode. The observed relationship between psychological distance and observational learning mode could be explained by the construal level.
Research limitations/implications
This research advances the observational learning and psychological distance literature by investigating the psychological mechanism behind observational learning modes. Limitations include the use of scenario-based experiments to test the hypotheses, investigation of a single product attribute (i.e. breadth of appeal) and assessment of popularity information by sales volume alone.
Practical implications
The current research provides a deeper understanding of consumer observational learning modes, which can help online retailers to develop effective product strategies and marketing tactics and, finally, achieve stronger competitive positions.
Originality/value
The present research contributes to the literature by examining the psychological mechanism involved in observational learning. This research distinguishes adequate and inadequate observational learning modes from the perspective of psychological distance.
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Chang Chen, Zhe Zhang and Ming Jia
The purpose of this paper is to examine the destructive effects of stretch goals on employees’ work–family conflict (WFC). Drawing on the conservation of resources (COR) theory…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the destructive effects of stretch goals on employees’ work–family conflict (WFC). Drawing on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study examines the mediating role of resource scarcity. By integrating the paradox theory with the COR theory, this study explores the moderating role of employees’ paradox mind-set.
Design/methodology/approach
Two-wave data were collected from a sample of MBA students in Northwestern China (N = 294). PROCESS was used to assess a moderated mediation model.
Findings
This study found a positive relationship between stretch goals and WFC, and resource scarcity mediated this relationship. For employees with a high paradox mind-set, the relationship between resource scarcity and WFC was weak; and the indirect effect of stretch goals on WFC via resource scarcity was weak.
Practical implications
Organizations should provide enough resources to employees when using stretch goals. Human resource managers could recruit candidates with high paradox mind-set and foster employees’ paradox mind-set through training.
Originality/value
This study makes contributions to the literature on stretch goals by examining the negative spillover effect of stretch goals on the family domain and exploring the mediating mechanism. This study also extends the paradox theory by using it at micro level to address questions on WFC.
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Abstract
Purpose
This study examines whether, how and when socially responsible human resource management (SRHRM) practices increase employees' in-role and extra-role corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses data from 422 employees of 68 companies.
Findings
SRHRM improves employees' in-role CSR-specific performance via impression management motivation and enhance extra-role CSR-specific performance via prosocial motivation. Moral identity symbolization strengthens the relationship between SRHRM and impression management motivation, and moral identity internalization reinforces the relationship between SRHRM and prosocial motivation. The authors also propose mediated moderation models.
Practical implications
This study indicates that company can adopt SRHRM practices to improve employees' in-role and extra-role CSR-specific performance.
Originality/value
This study reveals how and when SRHRM practices influence employees' CSR-specific performance and sheds light on the social impacts of SRHRM.
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Zhe Zhang and Chenyan Gu
Suning Group launched Suning.com when its chain stores were developing at the highest speed, realizing the transformation to an Internet retailer. Suning continued to follow the…
Abstract
Suning Group launched Suning.com when its chain stores were developing at the highest speed, realizing the transformation to an Internet retailer. Suning continued to follow the growth strategy of “Technological transformation and Smart Services”, and was renamed Suning Commerce Co. Ltd. It launched a business model of “e-commerce + stores + retail service providers”. Riding on the brand new O2O business model, Suning is thinking and practicing from simple donation to actual implementation, from constructing public welfare network to extending CSR ecosystem in a bid to advance towards deeper and more extensive Internet economy, and to create greater social value.
For classification problems of customer relationship management (CRM), the purpose of this paper is to propose a method with interpretability of the classification results that…
Abstract
Purpose
For classification problems of customer relationship management (CRM), the purpose of this paper is to propose a method with interpretability of the classification results that combines multiple decision trees based on a genetic algorithm.
Design/methodology/approach
In the proposed method, multiple decision trees are combined in parallel. Subsequently, a genetic algorithm is used to optimize the weight matrix in the combination algorithm.
Findings
The method is applied to customer credit rating assessment and customer response behavior pattern recognition. The results demonstrate that compared to a single decision tree, the proposed combination method improves the predictive accuracy and optimizes the classification rules, while maintaining interpretability of the classification results.
Originality/value
The findings of this study contribute to research methodologies in CRM. It specifically focuses on a new method with interpretability by combining multiple decision trees based on genetic algorithms for customer classification.
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Zhe Zhang and Yuansi Hou
The purpose of the study is to explore the effects of two dimensions of perceived risk (functional and emotional risk) on two types of consumer information search (ongoing and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the study is to explore the effects of two dimensions of perceived risk (functional and emotional risk) on two types of consumer information search (ongoing and pre-purchase search) in the context of innovative products and services and examine the moderating effect of innate consumer innovativeness.
Design/methodology/approach
The findings in this study are generated with a quantitative design using a multiple linear regression model and a residual centering method on data-collected survey responses related to tablet PC adoption in an online community and laboratory experiment on online bike-renting services.
Findings
The results show that functional and emotional risks influence on-going and pre-purchase search differently in innovative products and services context. On the one hand, functional risk affects on-going search negatively, whereas emotional risk affects on-going search positively; on the other hand, the effect of functional risk on pre-purchase search is not significant, and the effect of emotional risk on pre-purchase search is positive. Furthermore, these relationships are moderated by innate consumer innovativeness. For on-going search, consumer innovativeness moderates the negative effect of functional risk negatively and moderates the positive effect of emotional risk positively; for pre-purchase search, consumer innovativeness moderates the positive effect of emotional risk negatively on pre-purchase search.
Originality/value
Unlike established products and services, innovative products and services possess some elements that are unfamiliar to consumers. Companies typically pre-release innovative products and services long before officially launching them in the market, enabling consumers to assess potential risks and seek information in advance, thereby priming the market. Since innovative products and services are becoming more ubiquitous, research on the impact of perceived risk on information search is crucial for marketers. The present work is designed to be the first to consider the effects of two dimensions of perceived risk (functional and emotional risk) on two types of consumer information search (ongoing and pre-purchase search) and the moderating effect of innate consumer innovativeness. The present research is, therefore, intended to make contributions to the literature on perceived risk, information search and innovation management.
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Bo Liu, Yue-dong Wang, Zhe Zhang and Qi Dong
This paper aims to study and modify the notch equivalent stress method, as well as to establish the notch equivalent stress range S–N curve and apply it to the fatigue assessment…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study and modify the notch equivalent stress method, as well as to establish the notch equivalent stress range S–N curve and apply it to the fatigue assessment of engineering examples.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper studies the notch equivalent stress method and puts forward the concept of “singular equivalent crack”. Combined with the fatigue test results, by proposing to consider the singular coefficient of the transition angle of the welded structure and the introduction of material correction factors, this paper derives the notch equivalent stress equation for commonly used welded joints applicable to steel, and finally establishes the notch equivalent stress range of the S–N curve.
Findings
The obtained results show that the dispersion of fatigue data is 65.6 and 75.4% for T-joints and transverse cross-joints, respectively, under S–N curves using notched equivalent stress compared to the nominal stress range. The fatigue evaluation error of the modified notch equivalent stress equation for transverse cross welded joints improved by 50.65%, 53.1 and 39.6% on average, respectively, compared to the original other methods. The fatigue evaluation error for T-joints improved by 13.4 and 13.9%, respectively, compared to the original other methods.
Originality/value
There are relatively few studies on the fatigue assessment of notch equivalent stress method. In this paper, the notch equivalent stress method is studied and modified to improve the accuracy of fatigue assessment of welded structures with singular stresses.
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Jian Sun, Xin Fang, Jinmei Yao, Zhe Zhang, Renyun Guan and Guangxiang Zhang
The study aims to the distribution rule of lubricating oil film of full ceramic ball bearing and improve its performance and life.
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to the distribution rule of lubricating oil film of full ceramic ball bearing and improve its performance and life.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper established an analysis model based on the fluid–solid conjugate heat transfer theory for full ceramic ball bearings. The distribution of flow, temperature and pressure field of bearings under variable working conditions is analyzed. Meanwhile, the mathematical model of elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) of full ceramic ball bearings is established. The numerical analysis is used to study the influence of variable working conditions on the lubricant film thickness and pressure distribution of bearings. The temperature rise test of full ceramic ball bearing under oil lubrication was carried out to verify the correctness of simulation results.
Findings
As the speed increased, the oil volume fraction in full ceramic ball bearing decreased and the surface pressure of rolling element increased. The temperature rise of full ceramic ball bearings increases with increasing speed and load. The lubricant film thickness of full ceramic ball bearing is positively correlated with speed and negatively correlated with load. The pressure of lubricating film is positively correlated with speed and load. The test shows that the higher inner ring speed and radial load, the higher the steady-state temperature rise of full ceramic ball bearing. The test results are in high agreement with simulation results.
Originality/value
Based on the fluid–solid conjugate heat transfer theory and combined with Reynolds equation, lubricating oil film thickness formula, viscosity temperature and viscosity pressure formula. The thermal analysis model and EHL mathematical model of ceramic ball bearings are established. The flow field, temperature field and pressure field distribution of the full ceramic ball bearing are determined. And the thickness and pressure distribution of lubricating oil film in the contact area of full ceramic ball bearing were determined.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-05-2023-0126/
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