This paper studies the dynamics of online purchase patterns, focusing on the impact of the channel used on conversion probability, as well as the transition of channel use over time. A novel data set from a major Chinese online travel agency is used for analysis, consisting of four months of data with 24,337 store visits through three types of channels: direct visit, search advertising and referral. Results of a Bayesian multinomial logit model show that the search channel significantly affects consumers’ conversion probability, and show a high degree of inertia in channel use. This finding contrasts sharply with suggestions of previous research that most future purchases will converge to the direct-visit channel.
As the core element of a firm’s innovation capabilities and the source of firm growth, increasing employee creativity is a primary goal of organizations. Based on social cognitive theory, role theory, and creativity theory, this paper investigates the relationship between perception of normative expectations and employees’ intrinsic interest in creativity, as well as explores the role of self-efficacy in this relationship. We use data from a survey questionnaire of 2,035 employees from 185 firms in different geographic locations across China. Our empirical findings reveal that when employees perceive a normative expectation coming from leaders, family or customers, coupled with the fear of failing to satisfy the expectations of those referent groups, it positively and significantly affects their intrinsic interest in creativity. In addition, self-efficacy not only positively and significantly affects employees’ intrinsic interest in creativity, but also plays a partially mediating role in the relationship between the perception of expectation and employees’ intrinsic interest in creativity.
At the beginning of the reform period, though informal institutions as a substitute for formal institutions efficiently promoted the development of private enterprises, it eroded and destroyed the authority and execution efficiency of formal institutions with guanxi behaviors and implicit rules. With the progress of marketization, how to restrain and guide the evolution of informal institutions is an unavoidable obstacle for the development of private enterprises— transforming their competitive strategy from “non-market” dominance to “market” dominance. Based on survey data of 2,628 private enterprises from 31 provinces in China, we establish a regional commercial culture index to empirically investigate the different influences of guanxi behavior between entrepreneurs of different ages and regional guanxi culture. The results show that, compared with entrepreneurs who started businesses in recent years, i.e., after the 1990s, those who started businesses during the 1970s and the 1980s are more dependent on guanxi behaviors. Meanwhile, the higher the level of education, the less an entrepreneur is likely to be dependent on guanxi behaviors. However, compared with the constraint of the degree of regional marketization, regional guanxi culture promotes entrepreneurs’ guanxi behaviors. Further research indicates that the more enterprises depart from regional guanxi culture, the stronger the ability to innovation. This study can not only enrich the institutional analysis of entrepreneurs’ guanxi behaviors, but also provide a theoretical foundation for further expansion and deepening of reform.
Firm strategic change has attracted increased attention from strategic management scholars over the past few decades. With an aim to review the existing research and to provide a future research agenda, this study presents a multi-level analytical framework of the drivers of a firm’s strategic change. Specifically, we focus on the environment-, organizational-, and individual-level factors. Empirical studies at each of the three levels have been thoroughly reviewed. We further discuss the theoretical differences and relationships among the three levels of factors. This study concludes with important theoretical implications for firm strategic change research and also suggests a few future research directions on this topic.
This paper employs a hybrid methodology that combines case study and econometric research to examine the impact of the Internet on domestic market integration. There is not much research on this issue in the literature. From the multi-case analysis, this paper firstly obtains two main indications which are clear yet contrary to each other about how the Internet influences the market integration process. To be specific, although the Internet has both the ability and the potential to promote market integration, it is not always effective and could even harm this process due to several constraints. Using a provincial-level panel dataset from 2007 to 2013 in China, this paper empirically investigates whether the Internet plays a positive role in the market integration process. Contradictory to common expectations, we do not find any empirical evidence that the Internet accelerates the integration of domestic markets. Thus, when compared with taking advantage of Internet tools, manmade obstacles to market integration that exist in current trading systems and business models deserve more attention.
Unlike previous studies that have primarily focused on the causes and processes, this research emphasizes the consequences of collective turnover. Starting from a literature review, we use event chains to explore the consequences of collective turnover. Based on the case study of the Qidian founders’ collective turnover, we build a holistic theoretical framework to show the dynamics and continuity over time, influenced by the complexity of context. Our main conclusions are as follows: (1) collective turnover has a cascade effect, causing a series of secondary and derivative events, (2) collective turnover has both proximal and distal impacts on human capital flow, operational performance and financial performance, (3) whether or not a collective turnover has a positive or negative effect depends on the context factors. An event chain perspective that extends collective turnover theory and organizational behavior theory is used. We advocate for an integrate understanding of the consequences of collective turnover. In addition, this research will provide practical, instructive policies to intervene in collective turnover.