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  • RESEARCH
    Yue Wang, Wenhao Luo, Jing Zhang, Yirong Guo
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2019, 13(4): 431-448. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-019-0069-7

    Leader humility has emerged as an important topic in understanding the role of leadership in organizations in recent years. Though it was found to enhance subordinates’ work performance and positive work behaviors, we are unaware of the psychological mechanism and boundary conditions underlying leader humility and employees’ negative behaviors toward leaders. Drawing on social exchange theory and using a multistage sample including 273 employees and 55 supervisors in China, we demonstrated a negative indirect effect between leader humility and subordinates’ counterproductive work behaviors toward supervisors (CWB-S) via interpersonal justice and trust in supervisor. Furthermore, we find that leader political skill moderates the effect of leader humility on interpersonal justice and trust in supervisor. The indirect effect of leader humility on subordinates’ CWB-S through interpersonal justice is stronger when leader political skill is high, suggesting a moderated mediation model. Finally, we discuss the theoretical contributions and practical implications of this study, and highlight future directions for research on leader humility.

  • RESEARCH
    Jinran Chen, Lijuan Xie
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2019, 13(4): 449-467. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-019-0065-y

    Industrial policy is an important means for governments to promote industrial development and accelerate economic growth. This paper mainly uses the Chinese Law and Regulation Database as the source of the relevant laws and regulations of China’s industrial policies from 2003 to 2015. On this basis, it empirically examines the impact of industrial policies on economic growth. The study finds that China’s industrial policy has significant positive effects on economic growth and that industrial structure rationalization is an important channel of industrial policy to improve economic growth. The findings are also valid under a series of robustness tests and endogenous corrections. The results of heterogeneity tests confirm that there are heterogeneous effects pertaining to industrial policy on economic growth among different subregional areas, administrative levels, industrial development stages, and industrial policy types. Overall, this paper supports the hypothesis that industrial policy has positive effects on economic growth and, accordingly, provides a basis for industrial policy implementation.

  • Research article
    Shengming Liu,Ye Zhang,Lifan Chen,Li Guo,Dongling Yu
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2015, 9(4): 516-535. https://doi.org/10.3868/s070-004-015-0020-5

    Social media technologies have made it increasingly feasible for employees to be connected to work. WeChat, a newly emerging social media platform, is widely used in daily life, yet there is still little understanding of the consequences of the use of WeChat groups in enterprise. Based on boundary theory, we suggested that the use of WeChat groups in enterprise have both pros and cons for employees. We gathered data from an online survey of 202 employees. Results show that posting work-related content in enterprise WeChat groups had a beneficial impact on work for employees but also caused work-life conflict (WLC). However, posting life-related content in enterprise WeChat groups contributes to employees’ life-work enhancement (LWE). Contributions and future study directions of these findings are discussed.

  • RESEARCH
    Zhen Wang, Yuan Liu, Songbo Liu
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2019, 13(4): 416-430. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-019-0066-x

    This study examines how and when authoritarian leadership affects subordinates’ task performance. Using social exchange theory and power dependence theory, this study proposes that authoritarian leadership negatively influences task performance through leader-member exchange (LMX). This study further proposes that the effect of authoritarian leadership on LMX is stronger when a subordinate has less dependence on a leader. A two-wave survey was conducted in a large electronics and information enterprise group in China. These hypotheses are supported by results based on 219 supervisor-subordinate dyads. The results reveal that authoritarian leadership negatively affects subordinates’ task performance via LMX. Dependence on leader buffers the negative effect of authoritarian leadership on LMX and mitigates the indirect effect of authoritarian leadership on employee task performance through LMX. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.

  • Research article
    Zhenyu Liao,Yuchuan Liu
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2015, 9(4): 576-607. https://doi.org/10.3868/s070-004-015-0023-6

    Embedded in higher educational settings, this study examines the relationship between abusive supervision and psychological capital and the mechanism through which abusive supervision and team member support interact to influence psychological capital with supervisor-student exchange mediating the interaction with psychological capital. Data collected from 222 graduate students in six Chinese universities supports our mediated moderation model: abusive supervision negatively relates to psychological capital and supervisor-student exchange mediates the positive moderating effect of team member support on the relationship between abusive supervision and psychological capital. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

  • RESEARCH
    Shuai Meng, Jiayan Yan, Xuebing Cao
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2019, 13(3): 344-371. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-019-0063-0

    Drawing upon the knowledge-based view and team learning, we investigated how heterogeneity in top management teams (TMTs) in China influences global expansion strategies. Using panel data from Chinese listed firms from 2008 to 2014, we found that TMT functional background heterogeneity could positively affect firms’ commitment to outward foreign direct investment (OFDI), as the diversification of TMT members can enrich the team’s knowledge, facilitate efficient team learning, and enhance the decision-making capacity on overseas expansion. However, tenure heterogeneity may hinder knowledge acquisition and team learning among TMT members, hence undermining firms’ OFDI commitment.

  • RESEARCH
    Guodaohou Song, Xiaofang Wang
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2020, 14(1): 78-89. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-019-0068-8

    Production cost can be influenced by previous sales in an uncertain way. In reality, production cost may decrease in the number of initial buyers due to the learning effect, or increase in the number of initial buyers due to the quality-improving pressure from negative comments of unhappy users. Taking this uncertainty into account, this paper studies the optimal intertemporal pricing strategies of a firm when selling to strategic customers in two periods where production cost in the second period randomly changes with the number of buyers in the first period. Our results suggest how firms should adjust their optimal pricing strategies under different market circumstances.

  • Orginal Article
    Abteen Ijadi Maghsoodi, Gelayol Abouhamzeh, Mohammad Khalilzadeh, Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2017, 11(4): 545-572. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-017-0022-6

    The selection process of appropriate Performance Appraisal (PA) methods for organizations in today’s dynamic and agile environments along with its funding scales is a complex problem. Performance appraisal in modern organizations has become a part of the strategic approach toward integrating business policies and human resource activities. The existence of multiple criteria in the decision-making procedure makes finding the optimal PA method more challenging. The current study tackles a PA method assessment by applying a multiple criteria decision analysis method i.e., MULTIMOORA integrated Shannon’s entropy significance coefficient. A case study on the optimal PA method selection is analyzed by identifying the criteria and alternatives based on the literature and expert comments of the case-study employing two approaches, that is, MULTIMOORA and Entropy MULTIMOORA. The final rankings of the suggested methods are compared to TOPSIS and TOPSIS integrated Shannon’s entropy methods utilizing correlation coefficients of the final ranks. Eventually, by identifying the optimal PA approach i.e., 360-degree feedback, the selected optimal method employed in the case study and results are demonstrated and described with a comprehensive example.

  • RESEARCH
    Jiunyan Wu, Tomoki Sekiguchi
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2019, 13(4): 373-398. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-019-0070-1

    Although intragroup conflict has both multilevel and dynamic natures, less attention has been paid to establishing a holistic model of intragroup conflict that emerges across levels and unfolds over time. To address this research gap, we extend the multilevel view of intragroup conflict (Korsgaard et al. 2008) to develop a multilevel and dynamic model of intragroup conflict that explicitly includes (a) the role of time and (b) the feedback loop to encompass the dynamic aspect of intragroup conflict. We further instantiate the extended model in the context of team decision-making. To achieve this and systematically examine the complex relationships, we use agentbased modeling and simulation (ABMS). We directly investigate how two types of intragroup conflict—task and relationship conflict—interplay with cross-level antecedences, interrelate and develop over time, and affect team outcomes. This study adds to the intragroup conflict research by extending the field with multilevel and dynamic views.

  • Research article
    Xuebing Peng,Yi Lin,Yueling Liu
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2015, 9(4): 559-575. https://doi.org/10.3868/s070-004-015-0022-9

    Entrepreneurial resource combination is widely recognized as a key enabling factor to a new venture’s survival and growth, but how and why resources are integrated remain elusive. Borrowing from the theory of resource combination proposed by Sirmon, Hitt and Ireland (2007), this study empirically examines how environmental uncertainty impacts entrepreneurial resource combination. We also examine the mediating effect of effectual flexibility on the relationship between environmental uncertainty and entrepreneurial resource combination to see how new ventures utilize flexibility to neutralize the threat of environmental uncertainty. The moderating effect of entrepreneurial self-efficacy is also examined to see how entrepreneurs’ self-cognition affects these relationships. Examining data from 287 new ventures, we find that both environmental dynamism and environmental hostility have significantly positive influence on entrepreneurial resource combination (including entrepreneurial resource cohesion and entrepreneurial resource coupling). We also find that flexibility mediates the relationship between environmental uncertainty (including environmental dynamism and environmental hostility) and entrepreneurial resource combination. Empirical studies also show that entrepreneurial self-efficacy positively moderates the relationship between environmental dynamism and flexibility but negatively moderates the relationship between environmental hostility and flexibility. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

  • Research article
    Liye Wang,Jin Zhang,Wei Yan
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2015, 9(4): 536-558. https://doi.org/10.3868/s070-004-015-0021-2

    Titles of online products play an important role in attracting consumers and promoting product sales in e-commerce. However, current online product titles only cover basic features and cannot reflect the preferences of consumers exactly. To address this problem, this research proposed an online title optimization method based on the analysis of online reviews, which is called TOOR (Title Optimization based on Online Reviews). In this research, we analyzed and compared product features extracted from online product titles and online reviews from the point of view of consumers and applied features extracted from reviews to title optimization. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, two experiments were conducted in this paper, selecting four typical smartphones as experiment samples and Taobao.com as the data resources. The experimental results indicated that features extracted from online reviews can better reflect the consumers’ concern, and the titles optimized by the TOOR method are more appealing to consumers and have higher click-through rates.

  • RESEARCH
    Jin Feng, Wenxia Zhou, Shuoyu Li, Mengyi Li
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2019, 13(4): 399-415. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-019-0067-9

    By responding to the call for research on negative career shocks and future time perspective, this study regarded internal social capital as a tool of resource retention which shifts attention to negative career shocks’ positive effects. We test a moderated mediation model which illustrates the effect of negative career shocks on focus on opportunities—positive dimension of occupational future time perspective. Results revealed that internal social capital acts as the mediator between negative career shocks and focus on opportunities, and organizational embeddedness moderats the mediation effect. The relationship is stronger when individuals are highly embedded in organizations.

  • RESEARCH
    Haican Diao, Guoshan Liu, Zhuangming Zhu
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2020, 14(1): 90-103. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-020-00076-4

    In recent years, with strict domestic financial supervision and other policy-oriented factors, some products are becoming increasingly restricted, including nonstandard products, bank-guaranteed wealth management products, and other products that can provide investors with a more stable income. Pairs trading, a type of stable strategy that has proved efficient in many financial markets worldwide, has become the focus of investors. Based on the traditional Gatev–Goetzmann–Rouwenhorst (GGR, Gatev et al., 2006) strategy, this paper proposes a stock-matching strategy based on bi-objective quadratic programming with quadratic constraints (BQQ) model. Under the condition of ensuring a long-term equilibrium between pairedstock prices, the volatility of stock spreads is increased as much as possible, improving the profitability of the strategy. To verify the effectiveness of the strategy, we use the natural logs of the daily stock market indices in Shanghai. The GGR model and the BQQ model proposed in this paper are back-tested and compared. The results show that the BQQ model can achieve a higher rate of returns.

  • RESEARCH
    Qiang Wang, Chao Wang
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2020, 14(1): 104-119. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-020-00074-6

    Frontline employees are generally under great pressure, and carry out repetitive and mundane daily tasks, leading to burnout and a high turnover intention among them. To identify ways to reduce this turnover intention, this study examines the effect of perceived organizational support (POS) on burnout and turnover intention in the Chinese context and adds to the literature on frontline employee burnout. Using data from a survey of the frontline employees of a gas station in Beijing, we examine the mediating effects of frontline employee burnout on their POS and turnover intention. This study shows that POS has a significant negative impact on burnout and turnover intention, and that job resources cannot substitute POS.

  • RESEARCH
    Jingtao Yi, Jinqiu He, Lihong Yang
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2019, 13(3): 284-303. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-019-0060-3

    The platform economy is becoming an important engine for industrial innovation and economic growth. However, empirical research on how platform governance affects product performance through network externalities remains limited. Leveraging the perspective of platform ecosystems, this paper intends to empirically investigate the impact of platform governance on the product performance of complementors in the mobile application industry, based on firstly released apps on Apple’s App Store and Google Play. Our study shows that complementors of free mobile applications on the weakly regulated platform, Google Play, perform much better than those on the strictly regulated platform, Apple’s App Store, due to the larger size of the installed base. However, complementors on the strictly regulated platform, Apple’s App Store, can take advantage of highly valued end-users on the demand side and higher degrees of product differentiation on the supply side to enhance their product performance. This is likely due to higher entry barriers for complementors, and better user communities for end-users. We suggest that higher competition efficiency and performance levels are linked to the platforms associated with strict governance.

  • Orginal Article
    Wenjie Li, Jiamin Yin, Wenyu Du
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2017, 11(1): 69-100. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-017-0004-8

    Digital innovation is becoming increasingly important in today’s economy. Many digital innovations are developed not within organizations, but in innovation-driven entrepreneurial ecosystems, where various entrepreneurship related stakeholders collaborate and cooperate. Despite its significance, studies on digital entrepreneurship ecosystems (DEEs) are limited and the concept is largely undertheorized. This study intends to fill that gap by studying how a DEE organizes. This organizing issue is challenging, because stakeholders of a DEE are self-organizing and are not governed by any formal authority. To answer that question, we adopt forms of organizing as a theoretical lens, which provides structure to examine organizing issues. Through an in-depth case study of Zhongguancun, the Silicon Valley of China, we unveil eight processes around the themes of division of labor and integration of efforts. We further show that the forms of organizing feature a balance of centralized design and de-centralized emergence. This balanced view extends the forms of organizing literature, which takes an either/or perspective. Ecosystem architects and policy makers who intend to build entrepreneurship ecosystems to promote local economies can derive practical implications from our findings.

  • Orginal Article
    Cai-Hui Veronica Lin, Jian-Min James Sun
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2018, 12(1): 15-36. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-018-0027-9

    Informed by implicit leadership theories, this study investigates contemporary Chinese employees’ preferences for paternalistic leadership (including three components: moral leadership, benevolent leadership and authoritarian leadership) and transformational leadership. It further examines the relationship between power distance orientation, core self-evaluation (CSE) and leadership preferences. The study finds that contemporary Chinese employees most prefer moral leadership, but are also highly receptive to transformational leadership. They prefer authoritarian leadership least. Moreover, preferences for authoritarian leadership are predicated on followers’ power distance orientation. However, the opposite is true for moral leadership. CSE is positively related to followers’ preference for authoritarian leadership, benevolent leadership and transformational leadership, but not except for moral leadership. A positive interaction effect is found between power distance orientation and CSE with regard to authoritarian leadership preference. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

  • REVIEW
    Huacheng Wang, Kangtao Ye, Kai Zhong
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2018, 12(4): 344-380. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-018-0046-6

    This study reviews the influential accounting literature on China topics published both in international and Chinese journals in the recent four decades to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the reform and opening up in China. We first review the literature published in the first two decades, where normative research is dominant and financial accounting and managerial accounting are the main topics. Then, looking more in-depth at the most recent literature, we separately discuss the articles published from 1998 to 2007 and from 2008 to 2018, in which many topics are covered including financial accounting, managerial accounting, financial management and corporate governance, auditing and tax. Finally, conclusions and future suggestions are raised based on the issues explored over the past four decades.

  • RESEARCH
    Kerry Liu
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2020, 14(1): 30-51. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-020-00077-3

    Chinese consumer finance has been booming recently, especially since 2014. However, research on this topic is scant. This study presents an updated analysis, providing original, significant contributions for academics, investors, and policymakers. We explore five perspectives: (1) macroeconomics: policies adopted by the Chinese government to enhance economic growth through promoting personal consumption; (2) financial market: China’s different types of consumer finance institutions and their financing; (3) consumers: improvements in financial inclusion and consumer protections; (4) regulations in the context of supply-side structural reforms; and (5) potential areas for future academic research.

  • Orginal Article
    Salman Majeed, Changbao Lu, Muhammad Usman
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2017, 11(3): 341-373. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-017-0016-4

    A wide difference of opinion exists about the content and composition of emotions. Advertising may influence an audience and their buying decisions about products and services. The objective of this study is to better conceptualize how women emotionally respond to emotional advertisements (EAs). The variant views are integrated into an ACE model, composed of subordinate levels of emotions (E), celebrity endorsements (C), and appeal drivers (A). This empirical study examines women’s emotional response using data from 240 Chinese women respondents. The study participants were invited to develop ACE mix based advertisements and fill out questionnaires. PLS‐SEM analysis, a novel approach in ACE advertisement development and its applicability to consumer behavior, was used. The results show that showbiz celebrities expressing the emotion of happiness with music and color make the most effective ACE mix to influence the consumption behavior of women. The results are significantly mediated by attention levels and are widely applicable in the burgeoning advertising industry. The study also calls for further research with different ACE mixes in different contexts and on different audiences. It also opens doors for policy making and an appropriate understanding of women’s consumption behavior in the Chinese context.

  • Orginal Article
    Wen Wen, Jianbo Song
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2017, 11(3): 309-340. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-017-0012-8

    With growing economic globalization, returnee managers who have obtained education or work experience overseas play a much more crucial role in corporations, especially in emerging economies. Using hand‐collected managerial background data from a sample of firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2010 to 2014, this paper investigates the impact of returnee managers on corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. We find that returnee managers can promote CSR performance. Further analyses show that the impact of returnee managers on CSR is more pronounced when managers have a foreign study background compared to managers with foreign work experience. The impact only holds when managers obtained their experience in developed economies. When enterprises face greater information asymmetry, returnee managers are more willing to use CSR as a tool to convey a positive image to stakeholders. CSR can help managers reduce information asymmetry and improve firm value. The results are robust through a series of robustness checks including a propensity score matching (PSM) procedure and a Heckman two‐state sample selection model. This paper contributes to growing studies on the economic consequences of returnee managers and advances our understanding of the determinants of CSR at the individual level. The results also have implications for government and enterprises attracting talents with overseas experience.

  • Research article
    Sihai Li,Wenbin Long,Xianzhong Song
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2015, 9(4): 608-632. https://doi.org/10.3868/s070-004-015-0024-3

    This paper explores how the political identity of top managers influences corporate donations, based on upper echelons theory (UET). The results show that the political identity of the top manager has a significant impact on the donation behavior of a company, especially in areas with poor institutional environments. Corporate donations depend not only on whether the top manager has a political identity but also the type of this identity. Furthermore, the impact differs significantly between companies with different ownership structures. This study enriches our knowledge of corporate philanthropy by demonstrating that corporate donation practices are shaped by a range of contextual factors. Corporate giving behaviors in emerging economies such as China are differently motivated according to the fundamentally different aspects of their institutional settings.

  • Orginal Article
    Da Teng, Jingtao Yi
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2017, 11(1): 101-137. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-017-0005-7

    This paper examines the effects of ownership types on firms’ R&D intensity and innovation performance, using a sample of 357,857 Chinese firms from 2005–2007. This study finds considerable divergence among Chinese domestic enterprises in terms of R&D intensity and innovation performance. Firms owned by the central government are the key drivers for firms’ R&D activities, while local government, private and foreign ownerships are negatively related to both R&D intensity and innovation performance. Significant divergence within government ownership category and argues that China’s institutional changes generate varied government ownership groups with different levels of resource endowment, which in turn influence firms’ R&D activities.

  • RESEARCH
    Ji-Ye Mao
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2018, 12(4): 323-330. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-018-0045-7

    Indigenous business research has largely mirrored the economic growth in China over the past 40 years, which has reached a critical juncture. It is, therefore, important to take stock of the past progress to identify critical success factors and remaining challenges, in searching for paths to the next leap forward. To this end, this commentary will first review the key milestones in indigenous business research over the past four decades. Then it will highlight two paradoxes, namely, the lack of indigenous theories despite the phenomenal growth of Chinese firms, and the growing divergence between scientific rigor and low relevance to practice, which will need to be addressed in the future. Lastly, several predications and suggestions will be offered.

  • research-article
    Jie Zou
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2015, 9(3): 371-399. https://doi.org/10.3868/s070-004-015-0015-3

    This paper attempts to understand selective engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR). CSR involves various issues that can meet demands from multiple stakeholders. A firm can focus on certain CSR issues to satisfy a particular stakeholder while ignoring the demands from other stakeholders, or it can take a more balanced approach to CSR by addressing a wider range of social issues. In this paper, I investigate how stakeholder pressures from three types of primary stakeholders (customer, supplier, and employee) shape selective engagement in CSR. The empirical results based on a representative sample of more than 1,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the early 2000s suggest that firms prioritize their stakeholders based on instrumental considerations. Those stakeholders who have greater power over the focal firm will exert a larger impact on a firm’s CSR engagement. Constrained by limited managerial resources, firms accord attention to a limited range of issues most relevant to salient stakeholders. Specifically, MNCs as major customers pressure the focal firm to assume more responsibility for product quality, as well as on a wider range of social issues; SOEs as both major customers and major suppliers pressure the focal firm to assume more responsibility for employee welfare; employees with higher education pressure the focal firm to assume more responsibility for employee welfare, and for a wider range of social issues. This study contributes to stakeholder theory and research on the CSR of SMEs, and has important implications for CSR practitioners.

  • REVIEW
    Yu Hu, Yonggui Wang
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2020, 14(1): 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-019-0071-0

    China’s reform and opening up policy initiated by the then leader Deng Xiaoping have undergone a 40-year process since 1978. This period was marked by one of the greatest economic reforms in modern history. In this study, we extract literature focused on the Chinese marketization context and marketing practices published in top-tier international marketing journals and Chinese management journals between 1978 and 2018. This study identifies the research questions and research domains investigated in our selected literature. The authors hope to reveal the general landscape and evolution made in the context of this unique period in Chinese history. This thematically focused literature review provides marketing scholars with a snapshot of the academic marketing research in China and gives rise to novel research directions related to the deepening of the economic reform.

  • research-article
    HE Jiaxun
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2008, 2(4): 518-552. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11782-008-0030-7

    Using an indigenous model of Chinese brand relationship quality (CBRQ), the author analyzes the transfer phenomenon of the time-honored brand equity between parents and children from the perspective of combining intergenerational influence and brand equity. Results show that the time-honored brand equity from parents basically has no way to pass on to their children besides trust. Moreover, the positive relationships between parents and the time-honored brands are even destroyed to some extent. Implications related to the revitalization of the time-honored brands are also discussed.

  • Research article
    Dennis J. Lasser,Xue Wang
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2015, 9(4): 481-515. https://doi.org/10.3868/s070-004-015-0019-1

    The January effect has been well documented since the 1970s. This study examines whether the January effect still exists and if it does, whether arbitrageurs exploit it. We find that the January effect is still persistently significant. Furthermore, we find that arbitrageurs appear to exploit the January effect, especially in good market years when the number of losing firms is limited and are therefore more easily identifiable. We also find that the January effect tends to be higher for losing stocks with high arbitrage costs relative to those with low arbitrage costs.

  • RESEARCH
    Dongmin Kong, Maobin Wang, Xiyu Zhang
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2018, 12(4): 381-398. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-018-0040-z

    Long-term commitment is a motivational factor that drives people towards entrepreneurship. Scholars and practitioners have lacked a robust and validated instrument for measuring long-term commitment and its dimensions in the specific context of entrepreneurship. Based on a unique dataset of emigration statuses of Chinese entrepreneurs, we develop an instrument of entrepreneurial long-term commitment and test its impacts on corporate outcomes and entrepreneurs’ individual behaviors. We observe that entrepreneurial long-term commitment significantly affects corporate policies, long-term shareholder wealth and entrepreneurs’ individual behaviors. Our research also helps to evaluate the values of these entrepreneurs in China.

  • Orginal Article
    Jing Zhang, Lynda J. Song, Yue Wang, Guangjian Liu
    Frontiers of Business Research in China, 2018, 12(1): 61-81. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-018-0026-x

    This study aims to examine the relationship between authentic leadership and employee proactive behavior. Based on self-determination theory, we argue that such a relationship is sequentially mediated by psychological empowerment and core self-evaluations. In addition, political skill plays a moderating role in the third stage. These hypotheses are validated by a sample of 65 leaders and 275 subordinates from two private enterprises in mainland China. Results show that authentic leadership (Time 1) influences employees’ proactive behavior (Time 3) through the psychological empowerment (Time 1) and core self-evaluations of employees (Time 2), and the relationship between core self-evaluations and proactive behavior is positively moderated by employees’ political skill. In addition, bootstrapping results also verify the moderating role played by employees’ political skill in the indirect relationship between authentic leadership and proactive behavior through core self-evaluations. Theoretical and managerial implications are further discussed in the light of these findings.