The COVID-19 outbreak is a global crisis that has placed small and medium enterprises (SMEs) under huge pressure to survive, requiring them to respond effectively to the crisis. SMEs have adopted various digital technologies to cope with this crisis. Using a data set from a survey with 518 Chinese SMEs, the study examines the relationship between SMEs’ digitalization and their public crisis responses. The empirical results show that digitalization has enabled SMEs to respond effectively to the public crisis by making use of their dynamic capabilities. In addition, digitalization can help improve SMEs’ performance. We propose a theoretical framework of digitalization and crisis responses for SMEs and present three avenues for future research.

Drawing on the victim precipitation theory and self-esteem theory, this study examines the dispositional antecedents and consequences of workplace ostracism. Using data from 208 employees and their 96 immediate supervisors in two petroleum and gas companies in China, this study finds that agreeableness and extraversion are negatively, and neuroticism is positively related to workplace ostracism. Moreover, workplace ostracism is found to be negatively related to employee job performance, and this relationship is mediated by employee organization-based self-esteem.

Transformational leadership, generally considered as a desirable leadership style, has positive effects on various performance outcomes of employees; however, its productivity has been called into question because of a relative neglect of its negative aspects. Addressing this gap, an attempt at rethinking the relationship between transformational leadership and employee performance is important. The paradoxical perspective indicates that conflicting positive and negative effects of transformational leadership can coexist, which provides possibility and rationality for thorough consideration of employees’ task performance influenced by transformational leaders. Integrating the principle of diminishing marginal utility and the “Too-Much-ofa-Good-Thing (TMGT)” effect, this research explores an inverted U-shaped relationship between transformational leadership and employee task performance. Furthermore, applying social cognitive theory, we assume an employee’s proactive personality moderates the curvilinear influence of transformational leadership on employees’ task performance. As expected, results from a study of data from 209 supervisorsubordinate relationships from China showed that the inverted U-shaped relationship between transformational leadership and employees’ task performance was moderated by employees’ proactive personality. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Dynamic capabilities are regarded as a strategic premise to creating, maintaining and upgrading sustainable competitiveness. Considering organizational learning as a mediator variable, this study tests the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and dynamic capabilities, and identifies paths to develop dynamic capabilities and the components of these capabilities. More specifically, the factor analysis method was employed to verify that dynamic capabilities are comprised of four dimensions, i.e. environmental sensing capabilities, change and renewal capabilities, technological and organizational flexibility capabilities. It was found that dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation have a significantly positive effect on dynamic capabilities to different extents, while organizational learning, which has significantly positive effect on dynamic capabilities, plays a partial mediating role between the two. These findings indicate that companies can build dynamic capabilities through different levels of organizational learning in the context of innovative and proactive atmosphere.

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.

This paper divides store brands into generic ones versus individual ones. Accordingly, two types of store brand loyalty are discussed, namely general versus individual brand loyalty. It also analyzes perceptions of 2-tier store brands in terms of perceived quality and value, and explores the respective effects of consumer knowledge and brand attitude on store loyalty. Results show that both low-priced and medium-priced store brands are able to build individual store brand loyalty and store loyalty among customers. Managerial implications are also provided.

Natural disasters cause serious damage to businesses in the stricken areas and greatly affect survivors’ psychology and behaviors. Based on data from 206 survival employees in 33 affected firms in Wenchuan Earthquake, this study analyzes the impact of natural disaster on absenteeism, job satisfaction, and job performance of survival employees. Results indicate that after the earthquake, survival employees’ absenteeism and job satisfaction (including intrinsic, extrinsic, and general job satisfaction) decrease significantly, but their task performance, contextual performance, and overall job performance improve significantly. Employees’ learning and innovative performance have no significant change in comparison with that before the earthquake. The authors thus suggest that the affected businesses need to communicate with the survival employees actively, focus more on job security, compensation and working conditions, in order to maintain these employees’ job satisfaction. In addition, enterprises outside the affected areas should give priority to the recruitment of the survival employees given the same conditions, because it is beneficial to both the employing enterprises and the reconstruction of affected areas.

This study investigates the association between corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and cross-listing. In a clean setting where a change in CSR performance can be attributed to the cross-listing, we find a statistically significant and economically meaningful increase in CSR performance for the cross-listed firms. Moreover, such an increase comes mostly in technical CSR, which targets the firms’ primary stakeholders. We also find that the positive association between cross-listing and CSR improvements is more pronounced for firms with weak corporate governance. The results hold under a variety of different robustness checks.

The extant research on high performance work practices (HPWPs) mainly focuses on the organization level, with little research exploring employee experienced HPWPs and their impact on individual work outcomes. Whether and how employee experienced HPWPs contribute to individual job performance is investigated in this study, using three waves of data from 318 subordinatesupervisor dyads in three big auto manufacturing companies in China. Results show that HPWPs are positively related to individual job performance. Moreover, this relationship is fully mediated by employee person-job fit and intrinsic motivation.

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.

The current study primarily aims to identify the critical purchase factors that affect Chinese consumer purchase intention and purchase decision with regard to organic food consumption, in accordance with a modified theory of planned behavior and the alphabet theory. Specifically, this study builds a conceptual research framework by which to delve into the relationships between purchase factors and purchase intention, and elucidate the mediating roles of purchase factors in the relationships between purchase intention and purchase decision. Moreover, by leveraging a modified theory of planned behavior and the alphabet theory, the current study also determines the critical roles of subjective norms and reveals the information and knowledge that impact consumer attitude toward the purchase of organic food. The current study leverages the purposive sampling method and captures 310 records within Beijing, China. The results indicate that purchase attitude correlates positively with subjective norms and knowledge, while purchase intention correlates positively with purchase attitude, perceived behavior control, and food therapy culture. Furthermore, purchase intention can significantly mediate relationships between each of purchase attitude, perceived behavior control, food therapy culture, and purchase decision. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical significance of the framework, and propose subsequent research directions regarding organic food purchase behavior.

This paper studies intellectual capital in companies in Taiwan, China. Intellectual capital is an invisible, yet important resource for companies. The first aim of this paper is to provide a systematic investigation on how to measure intellectual capital. Results show that the coefficient of value-added intellectual capital is positively related to return on assets and market capitalization in both fix and random effects. Similar results are also obtained with dynamic panel data. Furthermore, innovation variables such as research and development expenditure are more accurate than structural capital in measuring intellectual capital. The author thus suggests that companies need to keep a close track of their intellectual capital and focus on internal information delivery to gain competitive advantage.

In light of a series of ethical scandals in China in recent years, this research aims to develop a reliable and valid scale to measure ethical leadership, namely the “ethical leadership measure (ELM).” Our results show that ELM is strongly and positively correlated with scales for authentic leadership, ethical leadership, idealized influence, and a recently-developed leadership virtues questionnaire (LVQ); and negatively correlated with laissez-faire leadership and passive management by exception. ELM is also found to be positively related to followers’ job satisfaction, affective commitment, trust in leader, organizational citizenship behavior, and moral identity, and negatively related to followers’ intention to quit.

This study examines the antecedents and consequences of both timing and content of idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) for attracting and retaining valuable employees. A resource exchange frame theorizes the influence pattern of personal individualism value, social skill, and perceived insider status on i-deals timing. Individualism and social skill are expected to relate to both ex ante and ex post i-deals; perceived insider status is anticipated to relate only to ex post i-deals. The frame also suggests that i-deals’ content and personal development relate primarily to relational and balanced psychological contracts; the other ex post i-deals, flexibility and workload reduction relate to transactional psychological contracts. The frame was tested with data collected from 289 Chinese employees in the telecommunication industry.

Limited empirical investigation has been devoted to understanding the multipleeffect mechanisms of moral leadership, especially the relationship between mediators. Drawing from both social learning and social exchange theories, this study examines whether value congruence and leader-member exchange (LMX) mediate the effect of moral leadership on followers’ positive work behaviors. Using two-wave survey data from 395 Chinese employees, the results indicate that both value congruence and LMX act as mediators in the relationship between moral leadership and positive work behaviors. Furthermore, a sequential mediation link from moral leadership to value congruence, then to LMX, and finally to positive work behaviors was established. Theoretical and practical implications are further discussed.

Reciprocity and trust are the basic principles of human social exchanges. Using a sample of 972 managers in China, we examined the relationship between transformational and transactional leadership styles and job-related attitudes of employees, as well as the mediating effects of both reciprocity and trust on the above relationship based on social exchange theory. The main findings of structural equation modeling analyses were shown as follows. Firstly, transformational leadership not only affects organizational trust and commitment directly, but also motivates organizational trust of employees through the mediation of generalized and balanced reciprocity indirectly, and thus enhances organizational commitment and stay intention of employees. Secondly, transactional leadership indirectly affects organizational trust and commitment of employees through the mediation of reciprocity. Thirdly, generalized reciprocity has direct effects on organizational commitment of employees, whereas balanced reciprocity exerts its influences through affecting organizational trust of employees. Managerial suggestions are provided.

Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, Am Psychol 44:513–524, 1989), social exchange theory (Blau, Exchange and power in social life, 1964)and the job demand-control model (Karasek, Adm Sci Q 24:285–308, 1979), this studyuncovers the theoretical mechanism that explains the relationship between workfamily conflict and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). First, this study focuses on how employee job satisfaction mediates the relationship. Then, we investigate the moderating role of decision authority in the mediated relationship. We employ three-wave data collected from 324 employees in 102 teams to test our hypotheses. Results of hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) first shows that job satisfaction mediates the relationship between work interference with family (WIF) and OCB. In addition, employees’ decision authority moderates the direct effect of WIF on OCB. Specifically, the negative relationship between WIF and OCB is stronger when employees’ decision authority is high. Moreover, decision authority moderates the indirect effect of WIF on OCB via job satisfaction. Specifically, the negative relationship between WIF and job satisfaction is weaker when employees’ decision authority is high. The results suggest that organizations should give employees enough decision authority over their work, as a high level of decision authority may act as a double-edged sword regarding critical organizational outcomes.

This paper investigates the effects of equity incentives on firm performance in Chinese listed firms. We address the sample selection problem by employing the propensity score matching methodology. Results show that, (1) On the whole, performance is positively related to equity incentives even after controlling for sample selection bias; (2) The final control rights have an important impact on the effects of equity incentives. The execution of equity incentives in privately owned firms can significantly decrease the agency costs between shareholders and managers, but such effects cannot be observed in state-owned firms; (3) Effects of equity incentives depend on the incentive type, that is, comparing to stock-based incentives, option-based incentives can reduce the agency costs significantly, thus are more effective; (4) Ownership structure also has important impacts on the effects of equity incentives. The agency costs decrease in firms with more decentralized ownership after introducing equity incentive, while in concentrated firms the effect is negligible.

This research explores the different effects of brand origin country and made-in country on consumers’ product evaluations and purchase intention. It is found that made-in cues have significant impacts on quality evaluation while brand origin cues influence purchase intention more prominently. Product quality is perceived lower when a brand from developed country is manufactured in developing countries, however, this may not affect consumers’ purchase intentions.

Although much research has been done on the relationship between leader-member exchange (LMX) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), little attention has been paid to the mechanism underpinning the relationship. Based on a sample of 214 supervisor-subordinate dyads from indigenous family business in China, this paper examines the mechanism by which LMX affects OCB, especially the mediating role of perceived insider status and the moderating role of Chinese traditionality. Structural equation modeling results show that: (1) LMX is positively related to OCB, and (2) perceived insider status fully mediates the relationship between LMX and OCB. Hierarchical regression results further reveal that Chinese traditionality moderates the effect of LMX on perceived insider status.

This research investigates the effects of advertising strategy, that is, rational advertising and emotional advertising, on brand love. Based on the consumer-brand relationship literature, brand love is defined as a reciprocal, dynamic, multiplex, and purposive relationship between satisfied consumers and their brands, and has three key components: brand intimacy, brand passion, and brand commitment. Using a series of pretests and a main experiment, we examine how rational and emotional advertising affect brand love as well as its components for different products and services. Results show that for products, there is an interaction between advertising strategy and product type in influencing brand love. Specifically, rational advertising is more effective for utilitarian-value based products while emotional advertising is more effective for hedonic-value based products. For services, we find that emotional advertising is more effective for both utilitarian- and hedonic-value based services.

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.

The transformation of China into an innovation-oriented nation is now topping the agenda of Chinese government. Technological innovation is seen at the heart of this transformation, and enterprises have been called the key driving force of the innovation process. However, what are the key ingredients for such a transformation to occur? And are Chinese enterprises ready to fulfil this new responsibility? Drawing on the concept of technological entrepreneurship, this paper intends to explain technological innovation in Chinese enterprises, and attempts to develop an integrative view for research in this field, especially as related to the questions asked above.

This study proposes a moderated mediation model to investigate the relationship between organizational learning and firm performance. We argue that entrepreneurial orientation mediates the positive effect of organizational learning on firm performance. Furthermore, the relationship between organizational learning and entrepreneurial orientation is strengthened when firms employ a higher level of high-performance work system. Hypotheses are supported by data from 181 firms operating in the manufacturing and service industries in China. Statistical results further reveal that a high-performance work system has different moderating effects on exploitative learning and exploratory learning. This research extends our understanding of organizational learning theory, entrepreneurship and human resource management literature by cross-fertilizing constructs in these fields with empirical evidence.

As the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic rages globally, its impact has been felt in the stock markets around the world. Amidst the gloomy economic outlook, certain sectors seem to have survived better than others. This paper aims to investigate the sectors that have performed better even as market sentiment is affected by the pandemic. The daily closing stock prices of a total usable sample of 1,567 firms from 37 sectors are first analyzed using a combination of hierarchical clustering and shape-based distance (SBD) measures. Market sentiment is modeled from Google Trends on the COVID-19 pandemic. This is then analyzed against the time series of daily closing stock prices using augmented vector autoregression (VAR). The empirical results indicate that market sentiment towards the pandemic has significant effects on the stock prices of the sectors. Particularly, the stock price performance across sectors is differentiated by the level of the digital transformation of sectors, with those that are most digitally transformed, showing resilience towards negative market sentiment on the pandemic. This study contributes to the existing literature by incorporating search trends to analyze market sentiment, and by showing that digital transformation moderated the stock market resilience of firms against concern over the COVID-19 outbreak.

This study is an integration of the leader-focused perspective and leader-follower exchange perspective, attempting to understand the relationship between leadership styles, leader-member relationship, and their joint impact on followers’ effectiveness, satisfaction, extra effort and organizational commitment. 615 respondents from five big pharmaceutical companies in China participated in this study. Results show that: (1) transformational leadership has positive influence on followers’ effectiveness, satisfaction, extra effort and organizational commitment; contingent reward has positive influence on effectiveness; management-by-exception leadership has negative influence on satisfaction; laissez-faire leadership has negative influence on effectiveness and satisfaction. (2) Leader-member exchange partially mediates the relationship between transformational, contingent reward, management-by-exception, laissez-faire leaderships and followers’ effectiveness, extra effort, satisfaction and organizational commitment.

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.

Innovation is the engine of development for enterprises, and there is an increasing trend to adopt an open innovation strategy. However, how to manage external resources in an open, collaborative and complementary manner, and in a shared environment that will yield the greatest networking effects, it is a challenging task. Because there is no such a satisfactory model for an open innovation strategy that combine operational mechanisms with the management of external resources. This article tries to fill the gap by adopting a resource-based perspective to construct an overall open innovation (OOI) business model. In this model, external resources are classified as industrial and non-industrial entities, to enable the identification of the interaction methods between manufacturing enterprises and external resources. The management of external resources involved in a Technology Open Innovation (TOI) cycle is given particular attention that includes: 1) the classification of the external resources of a TOI, 2) the general mechanisms extracted to promote qualified resources in and unqualified resources out, and 3) a business model to conceptualize the collaboration between enterprises and external resources. A case study of TOI is also provided to empirically verify its feasibility. This paper contributes to the literature by providing an original operational model and mechanism design for an open innovation strategy that is capable of managing external resources effectively.

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.

Extending the research on work–family interface in the Chinese context, the present study examines how organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) may enrich the quality of OCB performers’ family life through personal learning. Results from a sample of 385 supervisor-subordinate dyads in China show that OCB is positively associated with work-to-family enrichment. This association is fully mediated by one type of personal learning, namely personal skill development. The findings are discussed with respect to their theoretical contributions and practical implications in Chinese contexts.