Dissertations

Innovation is an essential part of economic growth for developing and developed economies alike.  This research is looking at the start-up as a vehicle for innovation and how the start-up process can be best conceived, planned and executed to ensure the successful use of resources to create the greatest innovation impact. It is aimed at understanding the critical factors that lead to successful start-ups, and those which are either absent or subpar which tend to be associated with failures in Thailand setting. The findings of this study are intended to serve as a practical guide for start-ups, investor, innovators, and other stakeholders in Thailand. Though, we would expect that the results will be readily generalizable.
              This research was conducted using a mixed-method approach. The research employed a series of semi-structured, exploratory, in-depth interviews, and the development and execution of a confirmatory questionnaire methodology. In this study, the success factors of start-ups are measured by the perceived growth of start-ups and, or the start-up’s ability to attain funding success. The study has identified three major constructs that predict start-ups success, namely, company formation, solutions and ecosystem. 
From the online survey results, the success factors influencing the growth of start-ups are founder business network, company’s agility, ownership level of the founding team, scalability of business model, talent acquisition capability, team’s internal communications, business competency, product-market-fit, strategic focus, and radicalness level of innovation. Whereas the success factors influencing start-ups funding success are founder business network, company’s agility, talent acquisition capability, business competency, product-market-fit and strategic focus. 
 

The excitement created by the introduction of Internet of things solutions (IoTS) is yet to be converted to an all-pervasive adoption and implementation across industries for capital goods in the B2B market. Proof of concepts (POC) and pilot projects are implemented but getting to the next phase of adoption and implementation across the B2B market for capital goods, has been lacking.

An exploratory mixed method is used for this research. Qualitative analysis of the semi-structured interviews with subject matter experts from users, OEMs, and service providers helped identify asset criticality, analytic intelligence, and interoperability as three core significant factors and implementation cost, vendor lock-in, and responsiveness as the interface between the core factors and adoption of IoT Solution. These factors are believed to influence the adoption of IoT Solutions, but much evidence remains conjectural or anecdotal to date. In this context, I present a systematic framework that is validated quantitatively.

The causal effect of reduction in implementation costs and vendor lock-in due to interoperability and the interaction of responsiveness on the relationship between asset criticality and IoT Solutions adoption is significant. This study is expected to provide practitioners in the B2B capital goods market insight on how to increase adoption.

Based on the background of the adoption of medical equipment management outsourcing in part of the Chinese public hospitals, this dissertation investigates the impact of medical equipment management outsourcing on performance in hospitals.

This dissertation applies a combination of theoretical and empirical research. Based on the theoretical support of the relationship between medical device management outsourcing and performance, the dissertation makes hypotheses about the possible results. In addition, the paper utilizes the research method of DID and questionnaire. The results of the study prove the hypothesis of the relationship between medical device management outsourcing and performance.

The results show that medical device management outsourcing has a positive effect on performance. In addition, medical device categorization would moderate medical device management outsourcing and performance.

With the increasing number and scale of domestic enterprises and the acceleration of economic transformation and upgrading, this has led to the demand for specialized management functions for enterprises in the rapidly developing market economy environment. Therefore, business owners entrust managers to carry out daily production management and development strategic planning for the enterprise. Under this model, the management rights and ownership of enterprises are separated, forming a relationship of agency and delegation between modern enterprises. Due to the continuous pursuit of maximizing profits as the business objective, this is the demand of business owners; And business managers need to adopt favorable development methods based on the current development status of the enterprise. Therefore, it leads to the problem of inconsistent goals in the pursuit of agency interests in enterprise management, which in turn leads to certain contradictions between both parties in the pursuit of maximizing their own interests. In order to address the inconsistency of interests in agency delegation relationships, it is necessary to implement effective incentive measures for managing human capital. The equity incentive system is one of the important means for modern enterprises to implement effective human capital management. It can bind the personal interests of management with the interests of the enterprise, motivate managers to create greater value for the company, and achieve the goal of win-win with managers. Therefore, the relationship between equity incentive mechanisms and corporate financial performance has always been a focus of academic and practical research, especially with the increasing pressure of business competition between enterprises caused by domestic economic transformation and upgrading. More and more enterprises are implementing equity incentive systems to better stimulate the motivation of managers and achieve the goal of good business development.
This article is based on the theory of enterprise financial performance evaluation, incentive theory, and principal-agent theory, and adopts research methods such as literature research and case analysis. Firstly, H Company is selected as the case object to analyze the relevant policies and methods of equity incentives adopted by H Company in its business development, as well as comprehensive comparison and analysis of enterprise financial performance evaluation data during the same period, Objectively and scientifically evaluate the effectiveness of equity incentives. Analyze the changes in different financial indicators of H Company under the implementation of two equity incentive measures, and analyze the differences in the impact between the implementation of two equity incentives. Study the relationship between the implementation of equity incentives and the financial performance of the enterprise. On this basis, in order to verify the results of the case analysis, this article conducted empirical research on 1049 manufacturing industry listings from 2013 to 2021 as a sample, and tested the research hypotheses in sequence. The final empirical results indicate that, firstly, implementing equity incentive plans in manufacturing listed companies can significantly promote the improvement of company performance, and this effect varies greatly for enterprises with different property rights and industries. Non state-owned enterprises have more market-oriented characteristics and a higher frequency of talent flow. Therefore, compared to state-owned enterprises, implementing equity incentive plans has a more significant positive effect on the improvement of company performance in non-state-owned enterprises; High tech manufacturing enterprises have a stronger thirst for talent and a greater need for high-quality talents to ensure a continuous supply of innovative products and technologies. Therefore, implementing equity incentives has a more significant promoting effect on company performance than traditional manufacturing. Secondly, the incentive methods, incentive numbers, and exercise prices in the equity incentive elements can also significantly and positively affect the performance of listed manufacturing companies. An increase in incentive intensity shows that it will actually reduce company performance, while the correlation between validity period and company performance is not significant.
As a long-term incentive mechanism, equity incentives are increasingly widely used in modern enterprises. Listed companies, due to their requirements for technology and talent aggregation, prefer to use equity incentives to attract and gather more and better core employees for the company, stimulate employees' scientific research and innovation capabilities, and promote faster and better development of the enterprise. At present, China's equity incentive system has entered a mature period, and an increasing number of enterprises have chosen equity incentive mechanisms. At the same time, we have found that some of these enterprises that implement equity incentives have achieved good results, such as improving enterprise performance, optimizing human capital, and significantly improving scientific research capabilities. However, some enterprises have encountered many problems after implementing equity incentive plans for a period of time, leading to the termination of plans midway. This article aims to conduct a case study on the equity incentive plan of a high-tech listed company and provide relevant constructive and operational suggestions. And conduct empirical research based on the conclusions drawn from the research, test the case study results, and provide reference for similar enterprises to implement equity incentives.

As a unique investment tool, public REITs projects allow infrastructure projects to go public. This research starts from the industry attributes of the underlying assets of public REITs projects, discussing the determining logic of REITs project performance and further elaborating on the impact of macroeconomic shocks on this decision logic. Research based on China's REITs project data indicates:
Firstly, based on project type and industry characteristics, the underlying assets of public REITs can be differentiated into growth and safety. Growth refers to investments with development potential, characterized by high risk and high returns. Safety pertains to investments in stable and reliable assets, typically receiving national policy support and government subsidies. The investment returns of growth-oriented REITs and safety-oriented REITs are significantly different. Specifically, compared to safety-oriented REITs, growth-oriented REITs have higher net profits and earnings per share, with greater volatility.
Secondly, considering macroeconomic fluctuations, growth-oriented REITs perform better under high stock market volatility and high inflation rates, having a higher total market value and turnover rate. Safety-oriented REITs have a stronger ability to resist economic fluctuations, and their anti-fall attributes are more robust than those of growth-oriented ones, offering higher investment returns and growth potential when interest rates are high.
Thirdly, REITs correlate less with traditional asset categories such as stocks and bonds. Their development allows investors to optimize their portfolios to reduce risk. Especially during economic fluctuations, the emergence of REITs allows ordinary investors to participate in real estate investments and obtain dividend income and earnings. At the same time, REITs with different industry characteristics also vary in their ability to resist risks. Investors must adjust and rebalance their portfolios more regularly and frequently.
This study demonstrates that the development of REITs allows investors to optimize their portfolios to reduce risk. Investors and decision-makers should pay attention to the industry characteristics of REITs. Before the development of REITs reaches maturity, it is essential to analyze and judge REITs attributes from their underlying assets, thus providing a basis for investment. In addition, investors also need to consider the impact of macroeconomic factors and adjust their REITs positions according to macroeconomic changes to ensure portfolio returns.

For over a decade, cultural tightness-looseness (TL) has established itself as a culture construct that is useful in diverse contexts at multiple levels. While most TL research has focused on TL consequences, less attention has been paid to TL antecedents. This dissertation proposes resources as a TL predictor and uses a resource-based perspective to review and extend extant TL literature.

In this study, I empirically examine the effect of resources on incremental and radical creativity as mediated by TL at the team level. I also explore the moderating effect of organizational size on these team-level relationships. The data was drawn from 150 corporate teams in India, a country currently the largest globally and boasts a dynamic economy supported by a diverse population.

This dissertation provides evidence that, for most organizations, increasing team resources has a loosening effect on team cultures. In small organizations, I found that TL's effect on incremental and radical creativity at the team level follows patterns seen in TL research conducted at higher levels of analysis. However, for teams in large organizations, resources had a tightening effect, and TL had a positive relationship with both types of creativity. This research contributes to the literature by proposing a new TL antecedent while providing practical insights for innovation investors and managers.   
 

Central bank digital currencies (CBDC) are the digital version of physical notes and coins. They are the latest milestone in the evolution of money over the centuries due to technological advancements. This digitalisation of physical money primarily serves as a medium of exchange that has a central bank anchor. There are two versions of CBDC, wholesale and retail. This thesis focuses on retail CBDC, which targets the general public and small daily transactions. It discusses the issues and the plausible implementation of a retail CBDC. A CBDC will preserve monetary sovereignty, foster financial stability, and counter private network effects, i.e., prevent private payment system monopolies and safeguards the payments system. It can also promote lower fees via increased domestic payment competition. More importantly, it can facilitate interoperability among foreign CBDCs and considerably lower fees for cross-border payments. While there are arguments against CBDC, the concerns about financial disintermediation, loss of privacy, and cyber threats can be mitigated by well-considered design choices.

A successful CBDC adoption must be preceded by at least four key foundations: the maintenance of the two-tier fractional banking system, an account-based model, an intermediated architecture, and a centralised system to facilitate real-time gross settlement (RTGS). Other essential conditions include co-existence with physical cash, a cap on CBDC deposits, non-interest yielding, offline functionality, and strong cybersecurity. Importantly, it will require broad public support, which will depend on cultural and social norms. All major central banks are stepping up research into CBDC, and its introduction is a matter of when and how, not if. However, implementation will be a significant challenge, and getting the public’s support will be the key. It will differ from country to country. For countries with high digital transactions and low interchange fees, the urgency to introduce CBDC may not be high, e.g., Scandinavia. For countries with high cash usage, the cost savings will be more significant, but this will also entail higher investments in the necessary infrastructures, education, and public promotion. This thesis provides an examination of these foundational and auxiliary issues surrounding a successful CBDC adoption.

This dissertation explores the model through which Chinese audio-visual industry parks drive innovation leveraging industrial chain networks, with Starpark as the core case study. It also integrates analyses of several other representative Chinese audio-visual industry parks. Based on these case analyses, it identifies critical elements essential for successful innovation within audio-visual industry parks driven by industrial chain networks, thereby providing a realistic foundation for the theoretical framework of the thesis.
Drawing on innovation theory, network theory, industrial chain network theory, and collaborative capability theory, this study abstracts the model driving innovation through industrial chain networks into theoretical constructs: the impact of network embeddedness on innovative performance and the process by which network embeddedness enhances innovative performance through collaborative capabilities. This forms the theoretical research framework of the thesis, presenting six theoretical hypotheses for testing.
To test these hypotheses, the thesis surveyed 150 companies within the Starpark, collecting data on companies' network embeddedness, collaborative capabilities, and innovative performance. The empirical research supports all the above six hypotheses.  Finally, the thesis proposes recommendations to foster innovation within Chinese audio-visual industry parks, including developing innovation carriers, establishing industry collaboration platforms, creating industry incubation bases, and enhancing legal or policy frameworks governing corporate relationships.
This thesis provides in-depth insights into the innovation model of Chinese audio-visual industry parks, offering valuable implications for enterprises, park administrators, and policymakers.

This research aims to investigate the effect of leadership styles on the task performance of star talents. As star talents play more and more critical role in the sustainable development of enterprise, how to effectively manage star talents’ sustaining growth becomes a crucial issue for the organizations.
 The quantitative survey, therefore was conducted to explore on how different leadership styles influence the task performance of star talents. How leader-member exchange mediates the relationship between leadership styles and star talents task performance, and how star talents’ annual income moderates the relationship between leadership and star talents’ task performance.
A total number of qualified 149 responses from students of the SJDBA-SMU program, and 2 Shanghai based multinational company plus 1 local company were participated in this survey. 
Research findings indicated that all of three leadership styles performed significant impact on the relationship with star talents’ task performance, yet, LMX significantly positively mediates the relationship between  transformational leadership, laissez-fail leadership and star talent’s task performance, while is not significant for transactional leadership on star talents’ task performance.
Star talent’s annual income moderates the relationship between transformational, transactional leadership on star talent’s task performance with the lower the annual income status the stronger the effect. Yet it was insignificant in moderating the relationship between laissez-fair leadership and star talent’s task performance.
The result sheds light on the strategies that organizations can apply to optimize the task performance of star talents through effective leadership practices and supportive leader-member relationships.

The increasingly fierce competition in the service market have made service innovation a focal point of continuous attention and exploration in both academic and industry. The development of VR technology has provided new options for enterprises to innovate in services. However, employing VR technology for service innovation requires a certain level of cost investment and entails risks. Moreover, how using VR technology for service innovation will impact consumer cognition and behavior, and how this cognition will affect a company's brand equity, remains unknown. These uncertainties hinder the application and development of VR technology in the service sector. Therefore, clearly understanding the benefits of VR-based service innovation is crucial. Against this background, this paper will analyze the effects brought by the use of VR technology in service innovation, providing guidance for enterprise service practices, with significant theoretical contributions and practical value.
Specifically, this research focuses on the impact of the application of VR technology in service innovation on businesses and consumers. Based on the consumer-based brand equity model, associative network memory model, and stereotype content model, it constructs a research model with service innovation as the independent variable, corporate associations, and brand equity as mediating variables, and consumer purchase intention as the dependent variable. It also includes the personal characteristics of consumers - novelty seeking, as a moderating variable. Through a mixed-method approach combining field experiments and survey research, this research verifies the research model and hypotheses, obtaining the following conclusions:
First, VR-based service innovation can impact corporate associations. specifically, it can significantly enhance corporate competence association.
Second, VR-based service innovation enhances brand equity by enhancing corporate associations. That is, service innovation based on VR technology can improve corporate competence association, which further enhances brand equity.
Third, corporate competence association and brand equity play a chain mediating role between VR-based service innovation and consumer purchase intention. Specifically, VR-based service innovation can enhance consumers' corporate competence association, which through enhancing the company's brand equity, positively impacts consumers' purchase intention.
Fourth, novelty seeking moderates the relationship between service innovation and competence association such that higher novelty-seeking weakens the relationship. 
In summary, this research focuses on the application of VR technology in service innovation, proposes a theoretical model of VR-based service innovation, and verifies its positive effects, internal mechanisms, and differences in effects at different levels of novelty seeking characteristics. It has certain contributions to the research of VR technology, service innovation, corporate association, brand equity, and other fields, and provides enlightenment for enterprises to make better use of VR technology for service innovation to enhance their brand equity.
Keywords: VR technology, service innovation, corporate association, brand equity, purchase intention

With the emergence of various information technologies, how to reasonably layout in different touch points has become a crucial issue for the company in practice, especially for those experienced durable goods with greater uncertainty and decision complexity. The company seeks to leverage the limited budget to achieve the most efficient marketing strategies, and thus the most effective combination of information channels. On the other hand, consumers could be easily influenced by different information resources in the process of purchase decision-making, and their information search behavior will gradually change with their accumulation of knowledge, experience and distinctive search objectives. Therefore, this paper explores the key question of how different information channels will work in the purchasing decision process of consumers. And I further test the heterogeneity of different types of consumers, and the collaborative effect of different combinations of information channels. Based on consumer decision journey theory and elaboration likelihood model, this paper first analyzes the process of forming consumer brand awareness through peripheral route theoretically. Then, when consumers generate their purchase demand, it will trigger their processing process through central path. And I propose that consumers will use different information channels based on their information-searching objectives in each stage of decision journey, respectively. By leveraging large-scale interviews and surveys data, I verify the important role and contribution distribution of different information channels in each stage of consumer’ decision journey based on rigorous Logit regression and Markov chain method. The empirical results show that, word-of-month is the most influential information channel in the first two stage during consumer decision journey, namely the formation of initial consideration set and active evaluation stage. Besides, digital media is very influential when consumers forming initial consideration set with the second important position; professional recommendation becomes the second influential information channel when consumers approach to active evaluation stage; and offline store plays the most important role when consumers make the final purchase decision. There are heterogeneous effects of information channels among different consumer groups, such as inexperienced consumers are mostly influenced by offline stores in term of brand awareness and evaluation; educated young consumers and less-educated consumers with lower income are easily influenced by recommendations from acquaintances or professionals. And as for the collaborative effect of combinations, digital media, professional recommendations, and offline store are having better effects combined with WOM in stage of initial consideration, active evaluation and final purchase respectively. This paper provides insights for practitioners and makes theoretical contributions on traditional consumer decision journey theory.

Facing the changing consumer demand, fierce competition in the industry, and economic downward pressure from international trade frictions and public health crises, how to survive and develop under severe conditions has become a difficult problem for many small and medium-sized food companies. However, the current transformation and development path for Chinese traditional food companies is not clear. To find a suitable transformation and development path for traditional Chinese food companies, academics have to seriously consider the following questions: (1) What corporate factors will affect the transformation process of food companies? (2) Is it possible to build a data-tested influence factor analysis framework applicable to the transformation of traditional Chinese food companies? (3) Can the established analysis framework be applied in practice to provide guidance for the transformation and upgrading of our case company and other food companies? (4) Can the research and analysis of the case companies further optimize our analysis framework?

The concept of corporate strategic transformation emphasizes how companies, who have experienced early development and accumulation, faced with their existing development models and successful experience, adjust their corporate strategies to deal with fierce external competition. This theory clarifies the need for change of companies in the face of difficulties, which is consistent with the internal demand for Chinese food companies to thrive again. Therefore, this study selects typical companies and combines past literature on enterprise transformation and the characteristics of the case company, in order to provide useful solutions for the upgrading and sustainable development of traditional Chinese food companies. And the main findings of this study are as follows: first, value deficiencies have a significant positive impact on enterprise transformation. Second, a smooth corporate work process has a significant positive impact on the transformation of the company. Third, the complexity of the corporate structure affects the efficiency of corporate management.

Therefore, based on the above findings, this research puts forward three suggestions for corporate management and transformation: First, in terms of employee management, companies need to establish a sound promotion mechanism to increase employees’ confidence in the company’s development. Secondly, in terms of production line management, companies should promptly adopt new strategies that are conducive to improving production efficiency and strengthen the construction of corporate culture. Finally, in terms of corporate management structure, reduce the percentage of absolute decisions made by management in business decision-making, and promote the construction of flat corporate management structure.
 

As globalisation accelerates and multinational companies expand, more employees are being assigned to work in other countries. This phenomenon of international assignments brings business opportunities and numerous challenges, the most prominent being cross-cultural adjustment. Expatriates must face different cultural backgrounds, values, and lifestyles. Such cultural differences can lead to communication barriers, psychological stress, and lifestyle difficulties, subsequently affecting job performance. This study explores the mechanism between psychological resilience and job performance from the perspective of expatriates' cross-cultural adjustment. It conducts empirical research through two rounds of three surveys, collecting 229 valid questionnaires in Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
First, this study introduces psychological resilience within cross-cultural themes, examining its impact on job performance among expatriates. Empirical research using sample data from Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam shows a significant direct positive correlation between expatriates' psychological resilience and job performance. This extends the application of psychological resilience theory, and provides an essential basis for selecting expatriate personnel.
Second, the study deepens the understanding of how psychological resilience influences job performance. Current there is a lack of empirical research on the mechanism by which the psychological resilience of expatriates impact work performance. This study introduces cross-cultural adjustment as a mediating variable and empirically tests that cross-cultural adjustment is one of the key pathways through which psychological resilience affects job performance. This highlights the need for effective strategies and measures to manage cross-cultural adjustment amid the challenges and pressures of foreign cultures.
Thirdly, the study enriches the application of cultural tightness theory. Many studies on cultural differences typically use dimensions such as power distance and individualism/collectivism. By introducing cultural tightness theory into expatriate research, the study finds that a relatively loose culture aids the cross-cultural adjustment of expatriate staff. Under such conditions, the impact of psychological resilience on cross-cultural adjustment is more pronounced.
Lastly, the study incorporates trust in supervisors from a cross-cultural adjustment perspective. The findings suggest that trust in supervisors amplifies the impact of cross-cultural adjustment of expatriate employees on job performance. This conclusion affirms the importance of trusting supervisors from the perspective of international assignees, enriches the research significance of trust in supervisors, and provides practical insights for expatriate personnel management.
Keywords: Psychological Resilience, Cross-Cultural Adjustment, Job Performance, Cultural Tightness, Trust in Supervisor
 

With the vigorous development of the new generation of information technology and the Internet of the global economy, digital economy has become the strategic direction of new competitive advantages of major countries in the world. The application of digital technology has changed the way traditional industries operate and promoted the development of emerging industries, such as e-commerce, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. As companies become more digital, they are able to better understand market and consumer needs, and improve business performance by reshaping their business models and organizational structure, optimizing their operational structure, and improving efficiency and productivity.
Manufacturing industry plays an important role in the economic development, and plays a vital role in the development of the country and enterprises. Since the industrial revolution, the manufacturing industry has replaced agriculture as the main industry of the industrial country, promoted the development of the society and economy, and determined the destiny of the country. Digitization is not only an independent factor of the manufacturing industry, but also promotes the integration of traditional elements across time and space, giving birth to a new manufacturing industry and leading the manufacturing industry in the digital age. More and more enterprises have started or have completed the digital transformation and tried new ways of development.
With the advancement of digitalization process, the impact of digitalization degree on high-quality economic development has been highly concerned by scholars at home and abroad. However, despite the large amount of resources invested in the digital transformation and regarded as the core of strategy, the specific impact path of digitalization degree on enterprise performance has not been thoroughly studied. In the digital era, the market environment on which enterprises depend for survival has become more complex, and enterprises need to have the ability to quickly respond to market changes to survive and develop better. Therefore, the dynamic capability theory provides a practical theoretical perspective to analyze the relationship between enterprise digital transformation and enterprise performance. In manufacturing, dynamic capacity is often considered as a vital factor. Manufacturing needs to constantly innovate and improve products, processes and production methods to adapt to market changes and meet consumer needs. Companies with strong dynamic capabilities are more likely to gain an advantage in highly competitive markets and maintain a growth and sustained competitive advantage. By investing in research and development, introducing new technologies, improving production efficiency and quality control, manufacturing companies can change their product mix, expand production capacity, reduce costs and improve their competitiveness. The use of digital technology can accelerate the enterprise's perception of the external environment, increase the access channels of resources and information, and promote the enterprise to quickly integrate resources according to the changes of the external environment, so as to improve enterprise performance.
In the above context, this study aims to deeply study the mechanism of the influence of digitalization degree on the performance of Chinese manufacturing enterprises. Research shows that one of the main means for enterprises to adapt to a changing environment is to improve their dynamic capabilities. Therefore, this study is based on the theory of dynamic ability, using the empirical research method, studied three specific dynamic ability (perception acquisition ability, integrated reconstruction ability and absorption utilization ability), and discusses the innovation orientation in the digital degree of the enterprise dynamic ability, and the environmental turbulence in the enterprise dynamic ability on the enterprise performance path. In terms of specific research content: First, this study collected and sorted out the literature and data concerning the digital transformation of manufacturing industry, enterprise performance, dynamic ability, innovation orientation and the degree of environmental turbulence, which provided a solid theoretical basis for the follow-up research. Secondly, dynamic ability was selected as the mediating variable, innovation orientation and degree of environmental turbulence as the regulatory variables to construct the research model and propose research hypotheses. In this study, manufacturing enterprises in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces were taken as samples, and statistical analysis data were obtained through questionnaire survey. In order to ensure the reliability of the data, mature scales were cited. Finally, using the method of empirical statistical analysis, the data collected by SPSS23.0 and Mplus 8 used the scale to test the constructed model and the proposed hypothesis, and explored the influence path of digitalization degree on the performance of manufacturing enterprises. The empirical analysis results show that: (1) the degree of enterprise digitalization is positively correlated with enterprise performance; (2) dynamic ability plays an intermediary role between the degree of enterprise digitalization and the enterprise performance; (3) innovation orientation has a positive regulating effect on the relationship between enterprise degree and dynamic ability; and (4) the degree of environmental turbulence has a positive regulating effect on the relationship between enterprise performance and dynamic ability.

Recent data show that the average lifespan of a company listed in the Standard and Poor's 500 (S&P 500) Index has declined from 32 years in 1965 to 21 years in 2020 (Clark, 2021), and it is estimated that 75% of the companies listed in the S&P 500 today will disappear from the list by 2027 (Hillenbrand, 2019). Organizational theory holds that for a company to be sustainable, it must strike a balance between exploring new possibilities and exploiting old certainties (March, 1991). The ability to manage the tension between exploration and exploitation is important at both organizational and individual levels (Gibson & Birkinshaw, 2004; Birkinshaw & Gupta, 2013)

Complementing previous studies on the antecedents of individual exploration and exploitation behavior, this study examines diversity of knowledge and depth of knowledge as antecedents to employee exploration and exploitation behaviors. It was also theorized that metacognition interacts with depth of knowledge and diversity of knowledge to predict individual exploration and exploitation behaviors.

Data (N = 414) were collected from participants randomly sampled from two large companies in Indonesia. Results indicated that exploration and exploitation behaviors were positively correlated with diversity of knowledge, depth of knowledge and metacognition. When metacognition, knowledge diversity, and knowledge depth were considered simultaneously, results indicated that only knowledge diversity and metacognition predicted exploration behavior. Also when simultaneously considering the predictors, only metacognition uniquely predicted exploitation behavior, whereas diversity and depth of knowledge did not.

Results did not support the hypothesized interactions between knowledge diversity, knowledge depth, and metacognition in predicting exploration and exploitation behaviors. However, exploratory analyses revealed that job complexity positively predicted exploration and exploitation behavior. These results provide insight into factors affecting exploration and exploitation. Results can be used to inform practitioners to develop or facilitate exploration and exploitation behaviors.

Under the influence of frequent global economic fluctuations, how service industry enterprises maintain its resilience or even take advantage of the environmental crisis to obtain higher growth has become an important research issue. The development of digital economy provides new digital technology support for service industry enterprises, which reduces the operational cost and improves the efficiency. Among them, artificial intelligence (AI) technology has been widely adopted in service industry enterprises in recent years. However, few studies have discussed what role the application of AI technology can play in service enterprises' response to external environmental shocks. In order to fulfill the research gap, this study focus on the effect of AI technology adoption on organizational resilience of service enterprises, and use both empirical study and case study to explore the mechanism of how AI technology adoption affect service enterprises’ organizational resilience.
This study firstly puts forward the hypothesis that the adoption of AI technology positively affects the organizational resilience of service enterprises based on the literature review and deduction, and carries out empirical analyses on the data of listed enterprises in the service industry between 2010 and 2020. The empirical study of the sample finds that (1) AI technology adoption significantly and positively affects the organizational resilience of service enterprises; (2) AI technology application significantly improves the resilience of service enterprises in terms of high and low liquidity organizational slacks; (3) AI technology application positively affects the organizational resilience of service enterprises through high liquidity organizational slacks ; (4) diversification strategy and firm size of service enterprises negatively moderated the relationship between AI technology adoption and high liquidity organizational slacks. The empirical study found that AI technology application significantly improves the organizational resilience of service enterprises through direct or indirect paths, and its impact is affected by the firm heterogeneities.
In order to further explore the mechanism of the impact of AI technology adoption on the organizational resilience of service enterprises, this study selected five samples of typical service enterprises to carry out case study. The case study finds that the response of sample enterprises' to the epidemic shock differs in three stages: the pre-shock stage, in early 2020, Chinese service industry enterprises faced the first new Covid-19 epidemic shock; the mid-shock stage, during the three-year period from 2020 to 2022, the epidemic spread more steadily, the area of influence was enlarged, and the consumption habits gradually change, regional mobility is inconvenient, and tourism and catering enterprises face strategic adjustments; the post-shock phase, from late 2022 to 2023, regional mobility is restored, and there is opportunity for the service sector to rebound. AI technology adoption improves firms' environmental awareness and information evaluation in the pre-shock stage; enhances algorithmic innovation and intelligent decision-making in the mid-shock stage; and helps service enterprises to seek path breakthroughs and realize new entrepreneurial opportunities in the post-shock stage.
This study generates the following contributions to existing research: First, the mechanism of the impact of AI technology adoption on organizational resilience is verified, revealing the important antecedents of organizational resilience; Secondly, the impact of AI technology adoption on different types of organizational slacks and its marginal effects are tested., further contributes to the study of the effects of AI technology adoption; Thirdly, the process model of how AI technology adoption help service enterprises form organizational resilience is established. This study also provide useful practical advices for services enterprises and other stakeholders considering the effect of AI technology adoption.

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are highly flexible and creative and play a significant role in the national economy and in employment, innovation, and entrepreneurship. However, due to their relatively small size, low technical level, lack of funds and talent, and backward management, they generally face development predicaments, such as the pressure to survive and weak anti-risk abilities. Therefore, in addition to leveraging their initiative to develop their competitive strength, making full use of external public service resources has become one approach MSMEs can take to find a way out of such predicaments. Various service-oriented manufacturing platform enterprises have recently emerged in China, under the policy guidance of central and local governments. These apply next-generation information technologies, such as the industrial internet, to empower new manufacturing and promote new services. The development of new business types and new service-oriented manufacturing models is essential to enhance the quality and efficiency of the manufacturing industry and facilitate its transformation and upgrading. This paper focuses on Bering3D Technology, a Chinese 3D printing technology service platform company, as the case study. Bering3D Technology represents a typical service manufacturing platform enterprise. An analysis of the specific service path of the enterprise reveals three main empowerment mechanisms: technology, information, and product empowerment. The influence of these three mechanisms on MSME innovation performance is examined and a questionnaire survey is conducted. This study extends the relevant literature on platform empowerment and MSME innovation.

Line (brand) extension activity in the western markets may have tempered during the last decade, and most of the academic research that has been done is based on traditional brick and mortar stores. With the rise of e-commerce, line extension became a growth tool for brands. The study starts with the classification of line extension strategic types, which gives different tiers of Chinese e-commerce firms a good reference, especially in the rapidly changing e-commerce environment. It also seeks to give guidance for different aspects of launching new line extensions. Using this guidance, future brands can make better estimations of brand extension launching results, and it will be easier for them to obtain the desired performance and to adjust store operations during the go-to-market phase.

As part of organizational slack, HR slack plays a role in managing external risks and opportunities when the global business environment is in turmoil. In recent years, Chinese high-tech companies have faced external shocks such as reverse globalization, decoupling of economic and trade relations, supply chain disruptions and epidemics, which have posed new challenges to their strategy formulation, business operations and talent acquisition. Chinese high-tech companies need to know whether they need to prepare adequate human resources as a buffer to deal with these challenges and opportunities. In the context of high-tech companies, this paper proposes for the first time that HR slack needs to be analyzed in both quantitative and qualitative dimensions based on RBV and KBV. In order to facilitate observation and measurement, this paper proposes to define absolute HR slack and relative HR slack in terms of 'relative change', which reflects the change in HR slack in the firm itself and the change in the industry. Further, the paper claims that HR slack in different groups may affect the firm performance to different extents, which leads to optimal HR configuration. This study presents for the first time the definition and metrics of HR slack in different groups and validates for the first time the extent of its impact on firm performance. Moreover, this paper is the first to use mediation effects to test how HR slack affects firm performance through financial constraints. This study confirms the positive relationship between HR slack and firm performance by using a panel data with ten-year from Year 2011 to 2021 of Chinese listed companies, including more than 2,000 listed companies and more than 17,000 observations. This greatly enriches the empirical study of HR slack.

     The research explores the complex dynamics of Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) within teams, specifically focusing on how Leader-Member Exchange Differentiation (LMXD) impacts task performance and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCB). Using an extensive dataset from 394 employees across 120 teams in three furnishing shopping malls in Zhejiang Province, China, our study employs a robust two-wave data collection method. This approach allows us to rigorously test our theoretical model and gain deeper insights into the nuanced relationships within workplace teams.
  Challenging conventional beliefs in the field of LMX, our findings reveal that LMXD does not significantly impact anticipated team conflicts, nor does it indirectly affect task performance and OCB. This discovery represents a significant shift from traditional perspectives on LMXD, calling for a reevaluation of its role in team dynamics. Our study underscores the pivotal role of the collective quality of Leader-Member Exchanges (group-mean LMX) in influencing team dynamics. We demonstrate that group-mean LMX is a critical factor in shaping team conflicts, which in turn indirectly affects task performance and OCB through the mediating roles of relationship conflict.  
 

Urbanization is one of the main development achievements in China since 1978, and from 1992 to 2012 is the fastest and largest period of old city reconstruction in China's big cities. This paper reviews phasic and regional variation of land property system, decision-making power and development permission concerning old city reconstruction, analyzes the institutional factors and incentive mechanism, and discusses the mismatch of authority allocation and responsibility, and as well as the follow-up effects brought by them during the period.
Through the analysis of comparative cases, this paper finds that the local governments dominated the large-scale old city reconstruction during the period based on the state-owned land property system in China. Hence, they maximized the local benefits through decision-making power and dislocation of development permission of old city reconstruction, which resulted the economical increase of the region, tax income of local government, official promotion, and power rent-seeking in person. The obvious mismatch of authority and responsibility during the period caused the slowing down of the large-scale old city reconstruction and the exploring in new model of urban renewal after 2012. The incentive mechanism and administrative system exposed in old city reconstruction need to be remedied through the further reform.
 

The concept of holding behaviors addresses the paradox wherein employees require support, yet organizations face challenges in providing it. As job demands and organizational uncertainty escalate, traditional hierarchical support systems prove inadequate in alleviating anxiety. Holding environments offer a temporary safe space for employees to express emotions, enabling them to cope with uncertainty and insecurity. Although crucial for addressing self-reliance and support dilemmas, there is limited research on the antecedents, consequences, mechanisms, and boundary conditions of holding behaviors.
Integrating social learning theory and social cognitive theory, this study proposes a trickle-down model suggesting that mentors' direct supervisors' behaviors may affect mentor holding behaviors, and in turn, influence their protégés' outcomes. Specifically, the study posits supervisor holding behaviors as the primary antecedent for mentor holding behaviors, as individuals learn from observing credible role models such as supervisors. Furthermore, the study aims to verify the impact of mentor holding behaviors on protégés, exploring consequences and underlying mechanisms. Additionally, the study examines the effects of mentor holding behaviors on protégé job performance, organizational citizenship behaviors, subjective well-being, and physical well-being, and the mediating role of personal learning and job involvement.
The study also proposes that the effect of supervisor behavior on mentor holding behaviors can be either strengthened or weakened under certain conditions. High-quality leader-member exchange relationships may intensify the relationship between supervisor holding behaviors and mentor holding behaviors, as mentors perceive supervisors as role models and guides.
The trickle-down model was tested using data collected from 242 mentor-protégé dyads in a four-wave research design in China. All hypotheses were supported. The study found that mentors' holding behaviors plays a significant mediating role in the relationship between supervisors' holding behaviors and protégé outcomes, and that leader-member exchange (LMX) is a key moderator for the main effect of supervisors' holding behaviors. The results also indicate that protégés' personal learning and job involvement mediate the relationship between mentors' holding behaviors and protégés' job performance, organizational citizenship behaviors, subjective well-being, and physical well-being.
This research contributes to the understanding of mentor holding behaviors by proposing a comprehensive model, examining antecedents, consequences, mechanisms, and moderators of holding behaviors. From a practical standpoint, it is essential for organizations and executives to comprehend holding environments and behaviors in order to assist employees in managing anxiety, enhancing work efficiency, and fostering innovation.

With the increasing popularity of short video marketing in business world, understanding how to engage short video viewers has attracted the attention from both academics and practitioners. Prior studies on short videos mainly focus on how characteristics of users or the attributes of video content affect marketing effectiveness. As a heuristic cue of short video content, the video title is expected to grab viewers’ attention thereby playing an important role in influencing viewers’ attitudes towards the short video consumption. Drawing on signaling theory, I propose that the characteristics of short video titles, such as the length, the sentiment strength, and the use of emoji, can influence the viewers’ engagement. Using a large sample of short videos from Kwai platform, I conduct a series of empirical analyses and find that short videos with longer titles, or with titles in lower sentiment strength, or with titles containing emojis, receive more likes and comments from viewers. The results of quantile analysis show that these characteristics of titles play a stronger role in influencing the viewers’ engagement when the engagement level is low. I also conduct a further analysis to explore the moderating effects of titles on viewers’ engagement across different video characteristics (i.e., the video duration and the short video topics) and characteristics of video creator (i.e, the popularity and the productivity). All the results remain consistent across different robustness tests. I also discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

The research on the consistency of corporate social responsibility performance and its impact on reputation in platform based enterprises is a comprehensive topic. This paper needs to identify important factors from numerous elements and patterns. Drawing on past experience and combining with the actual situation of the current period, C analyzes the factors that explore the relationship between corporate social responsibility performance consistency and reputation through literature research, questionnaire surveys, and case analysis, And use empirical methods to test their interrelationships, ultimately forming relevant research conclusions.

With the advent of big data era, data plays a pivotal role in sustaining firms’ competitive advantages. Although a few studies have shown that data analytics capability contributes to firms’ innovative performance, these studies either focus on general innovative performance or specific types of innovation, such as incremental innovation, radical innovation, and supply chain innovation. In this thesis, I enrich this stream of literature by conducting two studies to further examine the relationship between data analytics capability and innovation speed as well as innovation quality. This thesis consists of two studies. Study 1 is a survey study, in which I investigate the relationship between data analytics capability and innovation speed as well as the boundary conditions for this relationship. Study 2 is also a survey study, in which I explore the relationship between data analytics capability and innovation quality as well as the boundary conditions underlying this relationship. Based on my analyses of a sample of 459 Internet firms, I find that data analytics capability is positively associated with both the speed and quality of innovation. Overall, the two studies in my thesis depict an overarching theoretical framework that links data analytics capability to innovation speed and innovation quality as well as the boundary conditions. This framework offers a clear picture for researchers and practitioners to understands how to leverage data analytics to drive innovation speed and innovation quality in the digital era.

Since "digital China" been a national strategy in 2021, China has continuously made clear deployment on accelerating the construction of digital ecology, and almost all industries and enterprises have declared that they want to carry out digital transformation and upgrading, so digital technology is penetrating into almost all industries and fields. In this context, from the perspective of work team that is the smallest unit of enterprise production organization, this study tries to explore how the space of digital technology transformation affects the adaptive response of the team and what is the mechanism? What factors will affect this mechanism? How does it ultimately affect team vitality and performance?  
At the first this study reviewed the current research on the impact of digital technology on organizations, the research trends in the field of organizational change, and the research on team behavior from the perspective of psychology, and gradually built a theoretical framework based on the adaptive response model and technology acceptance model, and then proposed relevant research hypotheses. Then this dissertation tests the research hypothesis through empirical analysis.
On the basis of multiple interviews and long-term work observation, 700 working teams undergoing digital technology introduction were followed up, and after three questionnaires lasting seven months, 2,039 valid questionnaires were obtained from 374 teams. The study found that when fully digital technology preparedness, the space of digital transformation promoted adaptive response and improved team effectiveness - including team performance and team vitality.
The framework of this dissertation differs from previous studies in the following aspects: (1) the dynamic index of "the change in digital technology level" rather than "digital level" has a positive impact on team efficiency; (2) Described the mediating effect of "adaptive response" on the improvement of team efficiency under the influence of the change in digital level; (3) The regulation effect of preparation for technology on the whole mechanism is emphasized; (4) It focuses on the production of the smallest organizational unit in which members are not talkative but good at technical work and interact more frequently. It observes the impact of the introduction of digital technology from the lowest level of the organization, and considers the double-level behaviors of individuals and teams.
The findings of this study provide a basis for a deep understanding of the changes in the mentality and behavior of production personnel and their performance in the process of enterprise digital transformation, and provide guidance for enterprises to strengthen the production foundation, build high-quality industrial workers, and better complete the digital transformation.

Key words: digital technology, digital level change rate, adaptive response, team performance, team vitality

Charismatic leadership oratory is critical in aligning the organisational vision and goals for business sustainability. This research focuses on charismatic leadership, particularly on oratory leading to charismatic perception by the audience. This research seeks to provide future leaders with a better perspective of the multigenerational workforce in an effort to customise the rhetorical process for this diverse workforce to enhance charismatic perception, thereby promoting organisational communication.

The audience in prior studies has been treated as a homogeneous unit (Clark & Greatbatch, 2011; Groß et al., 2015), without distinguishing between different generational groups and their respective receptiveness to a leadership oratory. There has been little focus on audience preferences and especially on the diverse multigenerational audience with differing cultures, social backgrounds and technological preferences. Understandably, different communication styles relate differently to the way an individual thinks, processes and interacts in the iterative process of information exchange. This may mislead a leader to assume they have reached concerted alignment with the audience in the messaging.

Further, although prior leadership oratory researchers have demonstrated the effectiveness and operationalisation of rhetoric devices, the studies were speaker focused, focusing more on the follower effects. Conversely, the present research examines the rhetorical preferences of the audience, especially those from younger generations, to provide leaders with a better perspective of audiences’ preferences and enable to enhance their oratory effectiveness.

ASEAN is the world’s fastest-growing economy, with an estimated GDP of US$2.4 trillion in 2013, an estimated population of over 600 million people, and the third-largest workforce in the world, behind China and India, with a large percentage of its population belonging to young generations. With Southeast Asia accounting for approximately 9% of the world’s population with a median age of 30 years old, a large part of the region’s workforce is in the Generations Y (Naim & Lenka, 2018) and Z age groups. With Singapore being a key member state of ASEAN, we can expect a steady stream of younger foreign workers into Singapore seeking employment. Therefore, it is important for future leaders to appreciate the oratorical process, especially with younger generations.

This research comprises of two surveys and a series of interviews to determine whether diversity in the multigenerational audience translates to diversity in charismatic perception. The studies sought to identify the preferences and perspectives of the diverse audience, especially Generations Y and Z, who form the next workforce waves after Generation X, to help future leaders craft their oratory to enhance its charismatic perception and improve organisational communication.

The results showed that multigenerational diversity does result in different charismatic perception, but the difference was mild. The research demonstrated that the younger generations have higher preference towards verbal and non-verbal rhetorical delivery techniques over content. Finally, this research recommends a list of rhetorical techniques for the virtual communication setting—the new normal.

Traceability is the first step to gain visibility of the supply chain and can be used to meet different purposes. Similar to other agriculture crops, the natural rubber industry faces reputational damage due to deforestation, land grab, loss of biodiversity and non-compliance with environmental standards occurring in the upstream. Introduction of new social and environmental regulations accelerate the need for traceability. Reflecting the importance, this industry is looking at traceability to identify historical trends leading to the present sustainability state and any ongoing sustainability risks in the upstream to enable downstream users to formulate responses and actions to mitigate these risks. However, traceability for natural rubber industry is still new and limited research had been conducted in this area. This research focuses on Thailand, the world’s largest natural rubber producing country, and their premium product, Rib-Smoke-Sheet (RSS) which is central to tire and car manufacturers.  This study identifies the possible depth of traceability up to the closest point of origin in the complex upstream Thailand Rib-Smoke-Sheet (RSS) and proposes two traceability models that can meet the downstream users’ requirements. This research also discusses how downstream users can implement these critical success traceability initiatives with supply chain actors, use traceability to formulate responses to sustainability risks, and finally, includes recommendations for future research direction. 

The COVID-19 pandemic and complex global circumstances have prompted a heightened level of apprehension about food security in Singapore. With a land area of slightly over 700 square kilometers, of which a mere 1% is dedicated to agricultural purposes, Singapore's overall level of food self-sufficiency is less than 10%. Historically, Singapore has relied on imports to address its food deficits. However, due to the pandemic's impact and geopolitical tensions, which have resulted in instability within the global supply chain, Singapore is now compelled to re-evaluate its approach to food security. Consequently, there has been a substantial focus on exploring strategies that would increase the nation's food self-sufficiency, which is deemed an essential and significant topic of discussion for Singapore.

In 2019, the Singapore government launched the 30/30 initiative, outlining its endeavor to expand locally produced food to meet 30% of its national nutritional needs. However, at the current context level of food self-sufficiency at less than 10%, this would mean that, Singapore’s local food production needs to grow by about 3 times within a decade. Despite the government's extensive efforts to bolster domestic agricultural yields, it remains crucial to assess the effectiveness of current measures and to confront the daunting task of implementing the 30/30 program.

missing image.gifThis research aims to examine the experiences of other countries from a holistic academic perspective and based on these findings, to provide recommendations as a case study to Singapore for enhancing its agribusiness ecosystem.

Given the scarcity and value of land, labor, and capital in Singapore, the nation would benefit from leveraging on modern agricultural technology and agricultural enterprises to establish an agribusiness ecosystem to accelerates the development and growth of its agricultural industry. In the past, Singapore focuses on high value-added industries over agricultural development and, as a result, lacks the necessary expertise and talent in the agricultural field. Therefore, drawing on practical experiences from other countries is vital to building a successful agribusiness ecosystem in Singapore.

This study uncovered that Taiwan, a comparable island located in Southeast Asia, has achieved a self-sufficiency rate of about 31% in 2020. Taiwan is a notable “fruit kingdom” and boosts a well-established marine fishery and aquaculture industry. Moreover, its supplies of pork and poultry eggs far exceed its domestic demand. It has the capacity to export high-quality pork, vegetables, sugar, sugar cane, tea, rice, and tropical and sub-tropical fruits, with its exports demonstrating an upward trend. In addition, Taiwan has accumulated extensive years of experience in developing enterprises’ ecosystem, rendering it a model case study on a global scale. Given the similarities between Taiwan and Singapore in terms of geographical location, race, population age structure, and level of economic development, Taiwan’s experiences in ecosystem development are a noteworthy reference for Singapore to emulate.

This study tries to examine the question of “What lessons could Singapore draw from Taiwan in the development of its agribusiness Ecosystem?” To achieve this objective, the study will explore three sub-research questions, namely:

missing image.gif1) What domains constitute the agribusiness ecosystem? 2) What are the primary challenges confronting agribusiness entrepreneurs and what are the potential solutions? 3) What insights can Singapore derive from Taiwan’s experience in establishing an agribusiness ecosystem?

This study will be conducted over several phases. The initial phase is to review the literature pertaining to enterprise ecosystem and to establish the theoretical framework for this study. Drawing from the research of Isenberg (2011), the domains of the enterprise ecosystem are: policy, finance, culture, support, human capital, and markets. These domains interact in intricate yet distinct ways to shape various business ecosystems. Each business ecosystem consists of multiple elements.

The second phase of this research involves the development of an interview protocol aligned with the research questions and research models, followed by conducting interviews with founders of the targeted enterprises. As the research seeks to consolidate Taiwan’s experience and provide recommendations as a case study to Singapore for enhancing its agribusiness ecosystem, the interview outline will be designed based on the established Isenberg (2011) model, taking into considerations the distinctive characteristics and features of agricultural enterprises and Singapore’s current context. Subsequently, the author will select small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) that satisfy the research criteria and requirements. Finally, the author will conduct in-depth interviews with the founders to comprehend the composition of domains and elements of each domain in Taiwan’s agricultural enterprise ecosystem.

missing image.gifThe third phase involves consolidating the findings from the interviews conducted with the Taiwan’s agricultural enterprises, contextualized the model and furnishing the report for the advancements of Singapore’s agribusiness ecosystem.

The study has yielded several implications across its five chapters. Firstly, the Isenberg’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem (EE) model was found to be applicable to Taiwan's agricultural enterprise (AE), with its six domains of the model being identifiable in the Taiwanese context. As Singapore and Taiwan shares many similarities, the model is believed to be applicable to Singapore’s AE providing insights for its development. Secondly, the study highlighted the importance of the individuals involved in the AE, particularly the role of connectors. The interviewees emphasized the significant impact of connectors, who bridge the different domains and elements of AE. Lastly, this study highlighted that Isenberg’s model must be contextualized to the specific industry and geography to which it is applied. The interviewees shared their difficulties in navigating the various domains of the ecosystem, some of which may be specific to Taiwan.

missing image.gifThis study’s significance lies primarily in three aspects. First, to address a theoretical gap in the field of agribusiness ecosystem research. Existing research on ecosystem generally overlooks industry segmentation, with many presuming that the ecosystem model is a generic model applicable across all industries. However, research by Tan et al. (2000) demonstrates that the ecosystem and business infrastructure are influenced by industry and geographic factors. There is a dearth of research specifically examining ecosystems from the perspective of agricultural enterprises. This study aims to address this gap by proposing the concept of an agricultural enterprise ecosystem and building on existing models to advance our understanding of agricultural ecosystems.

The second significance of this study lies in its consolidation of Taiwan's experiences in the development of agribusiness ecosystems. Taiwan has a long history of agricultural development and began establishing its ecosystem as early as the 1960s. Over time, its agricultural ecosystem has become a global model, and earned a reputation as a prestigious agricultural region in Asia. This study seeks to refine and systematize Taiwan’s experience in agricultural development from the perspective of agricultural ecosystems. By doing so, this study aims to provide valuable insights and lessons for other countries, including Singapore, seeking to develop their own agribusiness ecosystems.

The third significance is that this study could offer as a reference for Singapore when developing its agricultural enterprise ecosystem. Given Singapore's pressing need to address its food security issues, there is a critical need to establish an enterprise ecosystem that can effectively integrate technology, innovation, sustainability, investment, and other key factors necessary for success in agribusiness. From an academic standpoint, this study consolidates and synthesizes the unique characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses of Taiwan's agribusiness ecosystem, and relate to Singapore's current situation.

As technology rapidly permeates all aspects of our lives, it is not unusual to question and even challenge the rationale on why certain industries are slower to adapt to the new digital age. Insurance is a business that is under scrutiny given its traditional ways of selling and legacy challenges. Why is technology investment in insurance companies lagging others? One emerging technological disruption is artificial intelligence (AI). It is the science of designing and building intelligent systems that can complete tasks traditionally performed by humans. AI is expected to fundamentally transform today’s marketplace, for businesses and consumers alike. However, because AI is a new technology that differs from prior technology in scale, performance, and sophistication, there is relatively limited understanding to how key stakeholders in the market—managers and consumers—respond to this new technology. Moreover, even less is known about the implications of AI technology for the insurance market in Singapore. In this dissertation, I explore the considerations and reactions of managers and consumers for AI in marketing applications for insurance in Singapore. To understand management’s perspective for insurance companies, the paper included a qualitative study based on in-depth interviews with prominent leaders like Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and industry veterans on technology investment appetite into insurance operations. This allows a better understanding of the school of thoughts when it comes to technology investments in insurance and how it potentially shapes the future of digitalization in insurance. To understand consumer perspective with users of emerging technology, the core of the paper includes a field study approach on consumer responses toward Artificial Intelligence Chatbot (AIC) in consumers’ purchase journey for insurance products in Singapore. I propose that AIC as a technology, when applied to the distribution of General Insurance (GI) products, specifically Motor Insurance (MI), is a better channel than via humans or the internet. The approach is based on the actual distribution of MI via a licensed broker in Singapore to consumers. The interactive nature of AIC suggests that it mimics the human sales process of insurance products to consumers and in addition, performs better than humans in various aspects. The findings show that consumers are more responsive in earlier as well as later parts of their purchase journey for insurance in Singapore, compared to typical responses in other sales channels (e.g., human agents) for insurance. Overall, the results suggest that AIC technology can be applied to other insurance products and potentially other financial products and services. AIC is an emerging area, and its application presents plenty of research opportunities, particularly in the field of financial services. Currently, there are limited actual field studies on AIC on its effort as a channel and mode for marketing and sale of financial services products. It also predicts what the future holds for AIC in financial services.

In addition to the data collected for AIC on MI, the research also included survey questions to better understand consumer behavior. The field study is a descriptive research that supported the fact that AIC is indeed a technology that perform better than any other remote tools in the market for MI and that there are various similarities of AIC to an actual insurance sales process that makes it well positioned to be the distribution channel for the future for insurance products.

Government agencies prioritize citizen service delivery to foster trust with the public. Technological advancements, particularly in Artificial Intelligence (AI), hold promise for improving service provision and aligning government operations with citizens' needs. This dissertation investigates the AI Based Citizen Question-Answer Recommender (ACQAR) system's implementation within a Singaporean government agency to enhance service delivery. ACQAR integrates Empath X SLA predictor, Citizen Question-Answer system (CQAS), and ChatGPT to generate contextually aware responses for customer service officers. The study aims to optimize government-citizen interactions in the digital age, where citizens expect efficient, personalized, and empathetic services.

The literature review in Chapter 2 examines AI's evolution in service delivery, emphasizing its potential to transform government services. Challenges like data opacity and Explainable AI are addressed, along with readiness assessment and corrective measures for AI adoption in government agencies.

Chapter 3 presents the case study background. Chapters 4 and 5 provide detailed discussions of learnings from other pilot systems done earlier that helped to enhance the design of ACQAR.

Chapter 6 outlines ACQAR's design and implementation, including integration details and pilot implementation within the Singaporean government agency. The implications of ACQAR's pilot implementation are examined, with strategies for addressing challenges in AI adoption, such as transparency and ethical considerations.

Considering the challenges in AI adoption highlighted previously, Chapter 7 assesses a government agency’s readiness for AI adoption and proposes a framework for smoother integration and risk mitigation for government agencies.

The dissertation concludes with a summary of findings, contributions, limitations, and recommendations for future research and practice. This research contributes to understanding AI's role in public administration, offering insights into practical implementation and challenges associated with AI adoption in the public sector.

With continuous development of Chinese economy, the incomes of Chinese citizens are constantly increasing, leading to dramatical changes of consumer demand patterns, especially in household electric appliances. The analysis of income and household wealth shows that the proportion of the middle-class population is about 20%-30% of the total population, and this proportion is still increasing. Consequently, it seems that consumption is constantly upgrading. This means, on one hand, part of the consumers still focuses on quality and cost, while on the other hand, part of consumers pays more attention on performance and styles. Therefore, it is critical for the manufacturers to adapt to customer demand changes so as to create more consumer values.

In this thesis, we study how to construct supply chains for newly introduced products of startup manufacturers.

To achieve this goal, we start from examining the changes of market demands. We analyze the data of consumers in Chinese markets, in particular in small electrical appliances, and show that the growing trends of such products. To catch such demands, the firms have to position their newly developed product well. We then discuss the components of customer perceived values in such situations, including product function and quality, product selection, price and brand, value-added services, and relationship and experience, to help firms reposition their products. Based on these analyses, we propose an integrated model considering consumer demand changes and customer perceived values. The theoretical framework mainly includes three parts: consumer value creation, product positioning and supply chain design, which is of great significance for companies to explore how to develop or produce new products.

Based on the theoretical framework, we study the supply chain construction for LANSEA Corporation, an emerging domestic hair dryer manufacturer, as an exemplar case to study supply chain construction for a new product manufacturer. We analyze the internal constraints of factory capacity and distribution capacity and the external environment under oligopoly competition, then construct a two-layer supply chain network model, and finally use the stimulation to propose an optimal solution for the real problem. Thus, we demonstrated the viability of the framework and the models through the supply chain construction of LANSEA Corporation, which form a circular process and product development for an evolutionary spiral.

This study tests for house money effect on 2,030 non-professional FX investors trading through an Australian broker. The results indicate that, in general, investors display a positive relationship between prior gains and the change in weekly risk-taking - the house money effect. The results also suggest that astute investors display a stronger house money effect than mediocre investors following prior gains. In comparison, mediocre investors display a stronger disposition effect following prior losses than astute investors. The study also shows that investors who initially demonstrated the house money effect became more prone to the disposition effect during stressful market conditions, as during the onset of the COVID-19 crisis. Concurring with Odean’s (1998) findings, the results demonstrate that for winners that were sold, the average excess returns holding the trade increased markedly, whilst for losing trades that were unsold, the losses escalated exponentially as the days passed. This further extends the belief that the disposition effect is detrimental to investing and that the house money effect is not as reckless as widely perceived.

Thanks to the rapid development of Internet technology, enterprises make an important innovation and they launch e-centralized procurement platforms (i.e. E-Centralized Procurement Platforms) in procurement activities. Taking Hebei Construction Group for a case study, this paper aims to explore the impact of E-Centralized Procurement Platforms on business operations, and comprehensively evaluates the impact of E-Centralized Procurement Platforms on enterprises’ performance by means of theoretical review, case study, large-sample empirical research, and supplier questionnaire.
The introductory part of Chapter 1 firstly presents the problems of this paper and introduces the background and significance of the selected topic. Hebei Construction Group is primarily engaged in the construction industry, an important economic pillar of China, so this paper is of great significance in exploring how E-Centralized Procurement Platforms affect business operations. Meanwhile, Chapter 1 outlines the methodology and structure of this paper in the research idea section.
Chapter 2 provides an in-depth discussion of the concept of E-Centralized Procurement Platforms and related theories and explains in detail the procurement costs and components as well as the advantages of centralized procurement. It also implies relevant theories such as transaction cost theory, bilateral market theory, and scale effect theory in the research to help understand how E-Centralized Procurement Platforms affect business operations. The literature review section reviews the procurement management of large-scale enterprises, procurement platform-related studies, and related literature reviews to provide theoretical support for the subsequent research.
Two research hypotheses are specified in Chapter 3 based on theoretical analysis and real-world observation, laying a foundation for the subsequent empirical research.
Chapter 4 makes clear the research design, including the methods of case analysis, large-sample empirical research and questionnaire survey. The case study of Hebei Construction Group's centralized procurement platform reveals the basic features of the platform and its impact on business operations. The large-sample empirical research provides a solid foundation for the findings with the support of data sources through synthetic control method and double difference method. Meanwhile, the questionnaire and empirical analysis also provide perspectives from suppliers, further supporting the findings.
Chapter 5 summarizes the research results. First, the case study of Hebei Construction Group's centralized procurement platform reveals the basic features of the platform and its positive impact on business operations. Next, findings of the empirical research show that E-Centralized Procurement Platforms have a significant impact on corporate profits, either through the synthetic control method or the double difference method. This conclusion is also supported by evidence from supplier questionnaires.
Finally, Chapter 6 showcases conclusions, emphasizes the positive impact of E-Centralized Procurement Platforms on business operations and puts forwards management recommendations. The findings are of reference value to Hebei Construction Group and other players in China's construction industry, helping to optimize the procurement process, enhance enterprises’ performance, and achieve better business results. The findings hereof are not only instructive for corporate decision makers, but also provide new insights for academic research on the impact of E-Centralized Procurement Platforms for future research.

Online retailers spend huge effort on online marketing through various channels to engage users while the effectiveness of each channel of exposure remains unclear and hard to measure. Based on extant research on information retrieval, attention and channel attribution, this study proposes a creative model to examine the effects of channel on the users’ purchase conversion as well as the impact of channel diversity on conversion and each channel’s effectiveness. Effects on revenue is further checked as online retailers also care about the revenue gained. This study intends to add managerial implications to online retailers on strategically and better allocating the marketing spendings across various online channels.

Previous entrepreneurial exit literature has mostly followed a feature-oriented logic by summarizing the impact of industry and company characteristics and entrepreneurs’ personal traits on entrepreneurial exit decisions, disregarding the decision-making process of entrepreneurial exit and the role of key events in advancing the process. This thesis endeavors to explore the determining factors behind entrepreneurial exit decisions of family businesses and the dynamic decision-making process based on Event System Theory (EST) with a single-case study method and a feature-oriented and process-oriented approach.

This study has conducted an in-depth investigation into Company H, which possesses typical features of Chinese private family businesses. The findings are as follows: (1) Both exogenous and endogenous events affect entrepreneurial exit decisions through unfulfilled family expectations (family wealth expectation, family reputation expectation, family harmony expectation, and family succession expectation); (2) Industry characteristics (industry competition intensity, government regulation intensity and negative media coverage intensity) not only can affect entrepreneurial exit directly but may also act as moderating factors that mediate the impact of key events on entrepreneurial exit; and (3) Family characteristics (family wealth accumulation, degree of ownership concentration and degree of the next generation’s involvement) not only have a direct impact on entrepreneurial exit but may also exert moderating effects on the process from key events to family expectations to entrepreneurial exit. In addition, the study has also collected publicly available information from another private company that has experienced the same events during the same period in the industry and carried out a supplementary analysis based on the framework and methodology of EST to support the findings of the case study further.

The possible contributions of this study are as follows: (1) It contributes to the previous research on entrepreneurial exit by providing an in-depth analysis of how family businesses make entrepreneurial exit decisions in terms of event strength and event space with a new perspective of EST; (2) It examines entrepreneurial exit in the context of Chinese family businesses and focuses on how key events affect entrepreneurial exit through family expectations, which helps to shed light on the mechanism through which key events exert influence on founders’ entrepreneurial exit decisions; and (3) It has integrated the process-oriented and feature-oriented paradigms by including industry characteristics and family characteristics as important situational conditions, thus setting boundary conditions for the process by which key events affect entrepreneurial exit. The practical implications of these findings are discussed.

This paper studies the impact of diversification strategies on the resilience of companies to risk shocks, based on the game license approval system reforms of 2018. Using the difference-in-differences method, this paper examines how product diversification, industrial diversification, and international diversification strategies affect company performance after they are exposed to restrictive policy shocks. The findings of this paper indicate that the aforementioned diversification strategies typically decrease the return on assets for companies. However, they have different effects when companies face shocks. Diversification within the gaming industry does not help companies mitigate decreases in performance caused by risk shocks; instead, it leads to a further decline in profitability. In contrast, diversification across different industries can effectively shield companies from risk shocks, resulting in a smaller decline in performance after the shock. The impact of international diversification strategies is similar to that of industrial diversification, as they also reduce the negative effects shocks have on companies. The research in this paper suggests that only unrelated diversification across a broader range of fields can help companies cope with risk shocks in specific areas and effectively disperse their impacts.

Keywords: Policy Impacts, Diversification Strategy, Gaming, Difference-in-Differences Method
 

Trust in organizations has been demonstrated and discussed widely in research in Western cultures. With China’s rapidly developing economy, more and more Western managers work in China now, while an increasing number of Chinese managers work overseas. This makes research on the way trust in organizations operates in Chinese culture an important topic. This study contributes to the literature from the perspective of the way values matter in the relation between organizational trust and performance in China. This research proposes that in the context of China, employees’ and supervisor’s Confucian value system affects the trust in the supervisor positively, which in turn, enhances work effort and consequently, affects job-related performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) positively. Some research has observed that relationship conflict affects the trust in the supervisor and work effort adversely, and therefore, it is proposed further that relationship conflict moderates the relation between the employees’ and supervisor’s Confucian value system and trust in the supervisor, as well as between trust in the supervisor and work effort. Before the proposed model was tested, this study sought to develop a new set of scales to measure the Confucian value system following Hinkin’s (1998) approach. A literature review was conducted and no specific measurement for the Confucian value system manifested in the work context was found. To develop a set of such scales, pilot interviews were conducted with a sample of eight individuals across China to determine their knowledge of the Confucian value system and the way these values are manifested in behaviors in their daily life and work. In the second step, an original Confucian value system scale was developed with 30 items using a deductive approach from the literature. In the third step, a survey of 500 individuals in China was conducted and subsequently, a 12-item scale from the 30 items in Study 1 was created that is both reliable and valid to measure the Confucian value system manifested in the work context. The proposed model was tested with the newly developed scales, and all of the proposed hypotheses were supported except for the moderating effect of relationship conflict in Study 2. This study contributes to the literature by developing a set of measures of the Confucian values system manifested in the work context and also provided evidence that such values are important in trust in the supervisor in China.

Based on the researcher's work experience and the availability of data, this paper takes a MNC company M acquisition of a high-quality local company K as the research object. Based on the actual operation of the medical device industry, combined with the cultural characteristics of state-owned enterprises and private enterprises, the focus of culture conflicts during the merger and purchase of private businesses by MNCs is the subject of this essay. Investigate methods for implementing cultural integration following the merger and purchase of medical equipment companies. First, this essay provides a succinct overview of the two sides of the merger and acquisition debate, briefly describes the merger process and the generation of culture conflict phenomenon after the completion of the merger, by classifying the conflict phenomenon to do variable design and preliminary questionnaire, and then do preliminary screening and testing of the collected questionnaires to form the final questionnaire, and then use SPSS 3.0 to analyze the collected questionnaire data. The influence of four aspects of culture conflict on the intensity of conflict was studied. Through the data analysis, the focus of culture conflict of M company's merger and acquisition of company K mainly focuses on the behavioral culture conflict, but according to the cultural structure and mutual relationship, it can be seen that the behavioral culture conflict is inevitably behind the impact of institutional culture conflict and spiritual culture conflict. So, the text further from the process of merger and acquisition, leadership behavior, employee behavior to ask the relevant personnel interview analysis, sort out the real situation of merger and acquisition of cultural integration and existing problems. Based on the above investigation and research, this paper puts forward suggestions on the cultural integration of state-owned enterprises' merger and acquisition of private enterprises: strengthen communication and do a good job of employee emotion management, formulate a comprehensive cultural integration plan, leaders attach importance to and actively carry out cultural integration, and improve employee participation.
  1)The findings of our study show that the talent retention not only related with leadership styles but also related with culture conflict after merge and acquisition.
managers care about Key KPI which are related the benefits of employee and they also want to know the integration process.
  2）The enterprise will have employees with different values at the same time after the cross-border M&A,, both sides of the employees think their original enterprise culture has the superiority, are not very understanding and recognition of each other's culture.

The innovation of this paper lies in starting from the actual operation of MNC and domestic medical device enterprises, giving full consideration to the cultural characteristics between them; Secondly, culture conflict and integration are ubiquitous in mergers and acquisitions business, but cannot be seen and touch, this paper from a quantitative perspective to make up for the shortcomings of the existing qualitative analysis.

This dissertation aims to examine whether and how CEO emotional stability influences firm innovation. I argue that CEO emotional stability enables firms to secure resources from external stakeholders as well as create a friendly innovation climate within the firm, thus helping firm innovation. Moreover, external market competition and market uncertainty strengthen the relationship between CEO emotional stability and firm innovation; while financial slack and firm size weaken the main relationship. Surveys are conducted to collect the data to test the hypotheses. This dissertation extends the literature on emotional stability as well as innovation from the upper echelons perspective.

This research is based on the paradigm of case analysis and theoretical interpretation, and some related literature is mainly carried out from the following perspectives: on the one hand, in the practice of Confucian cultural management, focusing on the role of management practice of a certain idea in the connotation of Confucian culture, the role-playing of Confucian culture in the organizational construction of enterprises such as"Family culture" and"Happiness", or the exploration of the impact of Confucian culture on corporate governance issues such as corporate social responsibility, direct discussion of the role of Confucian culture practice in the employee's work enthusiasm of the internal mechanism of rare;
On the other hand, the staff work enthusiasm, pay attention to the influence of the company's dominant system, training, social support, organizational resources, organizational environment, family support or psychological contract on employees' work motivation. How does it affect the psychological contract between the employee and the enterprise from the perspective of Confucian culture, and feedback to the employee's work enthusiasm.Different from previous studies, this research focuses on the research paradigm of"Confucian cultural practice-employee work enthusiasm", and takes aokang international as the research object to describe the Confucian cultural practice in detail, this paper analyzes the inner mechanism of aokang international Confucian culture's influence on employees' work enthusiasm, and probes into the after-effect of this influence on enterprise performance. Moreover, this study also makes a multi-level empirical analysis on the paradigm of"Confucian culture practice-employee work enthusiasm" with the help of the data of micro-listed companies, also pay attention to the heterogeneity of the law, the inherent logic. Therefore, this study provides information-rich evidence from case studies and mathematical evidence.

By using a novel dataset, platform firms (those that operate on apps and the internet as their main vector of operations), this study explores the boundaries of the firm through the lens of corporate social responsibility. By examining the CSR scandals of platform-based firms, the paper aims to answer: ‘How do digital platform firms affect the society and capital market and understand the welfare of stakeholders?’. To disentangle the debates in the literature, the study articulates the new framework of the boundaries and scope of firms by proposing broader stakeholders of firms.

This research attempts to elucidate the boundaries of the newly formed platform-based firms by revisiting their stakeholders using an event study method with CSR scandals and its reactions from the stock market. The findings of the study suggest that consistent with market efficient hypothesis, the stock market accurately captures unanticipated corporate events. Nevertheless, the results show the significant negative effects of CSR scandals of the platform firms on market reactions, while the ESG ratings of the firms with scandals do not change significantly after the events nor have an effect on market reactions.

Furthermore, the results with controlling variables show the changes of ESG ratings have no effect on abnormal returns after several robustness tests of the samples were used in this study. This study provides ample evidence that the stakeholders of platform firms are not well recognized nor incorporated in CSR performance (the ESG ratings) of the firm; hence, it is not conveyed to the investors.

Finally, the main contribution of the study is in providing a framework of stakeholder theory by bringing together the discussions for the need for revisiting and refining of the boundaries and scope of the tech-driven digital platform firms through clarifying the doubts about its stakeholders.

Mine planning comprises various real-world formulations within the angles of strategic, tactical and operational in Operations Research. They differ by the decision-making granularity and timeframe range. Long-term mine planning highly contribute to cost impacts and comprise of the strategic and tactical angles, whereby the latter is NP-hard. The tactical precedence-constrained production scheduling problem (PCPSP) sequences the extraction of materials from the mine pit and chooses the subsequent processing actions over several years according to geological, geometallurgical and resource limitations. The PCPSP conventionally prioritizes the net present value (NPV) of profit, but heightening sustainability concerns necessitate heightened sustainable practices and research that still lags.

This dissertation first examined 81 past long-term mine planning research with a systematic literature review. The review focused on the PCPSP and highlighted research that encompass sustainability elements. Overall, it furnished real-world components that are incorporated into mathematical formulations, trends in solution methods, and how methods compare based on efficiency and efficacy. The systematic review surfaced the types of uncertainties, use of publicly available libraries and environmental elements that are overlooked. These form the bedrock for the remaining dissertation that traded off the NPV of profit against environmental sustainability - particularly carbon cost - in a multi-objective optimization (MOO). Leveraging on the generic PCPSP formulation, our MOO framework zoned into two approaches of decomposition-based and domination-based. We devised two formulations for the respective approaches with a carbon costing framework.

For the decomposition-based approach, we utilized a bounded objective function method and proposed a novel hybrid temporal decomposed greedy Lagrangian relaxation (TDGLR) algorithm. When evaluated against a mixed integer programming (MIP) for a real-world operating mine, the TDGLR is faster and achieved gaps not exceeding 0.3178% and averaged 0.015%. For larger instances, the MIP failed to even provide feasible solutions. For the domination-based approach, we leveraged two popular multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) of Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) and Pareto Envelope-based Sorting Algorithm II (PESA-II). Commencing with NSGA-II, we illustrated the effectiveness of novel heuristics for the initial solution generation, crossover and mutation in forming an approximate Pareto front and solution sets that were diverse and close to that front. The front also enables planners to adhere to stipulated annual carbon emission targets. Subsequently, these heuristics were applied on the PESA-II, with experimentation on the selection pressure parameter, and evaluated against the NSGA-II. PESA-II ran faster for 75% of datasets and its solution sets were more distributed. Meanwhile, the solution sets of NSGA-II steadily produced non-dominated solutions despite variance in a decision variable. Additionally, we displayed that deviations in ore tonnage not exceeding 15% induced small alterations from the original.

Finally, we surfaced several junctures for future studies. This comprise modifying the proposed MOEA framework to favor more complex datasets, including other sustainability elements (e.g. social) separately or concurrently, using stochastic means to measure uncertainty, and expanding to other uncertainties. Their considerations were also presented to further enable sustainable mine planning.

Regional high-end hotels play a great leading role in industry communication, tourism, and consumer culture in the area where they are located. However, regional high-end hotels rely on the area’s industry background and economic development for their survival and operations. Hence, their brand influence seldom spread outside the area. As a result, the limitations of brand awareness have been challenging the rapid development of regional high-end hotels. The existing research has not come to a clear theoretical response to this challenge. To enhance research in this field, this paper grounded on value co-creation theory posed one core question and three subquestions, with an aim to address the visibility plight of regional high-end hotels. The core question: What should regional high-end hotels do to promote their visibility through a reasonable value co-creation strategy?

To answer the above questions, this paper first selected Ming Du Lakeside Hotel in Guangxi’s capital city Nanning as the research object, analyzed and ratiocinated its value co-creation, customer value, culture, and hotel marketing theory, conceived a model of visibility promotion for regional high-end hotels, and put forward corresponding hypotheses. Second, a questionnaire survey was applied and a total of 702 valid questionnaires were collected from the hotel guests to verify the visibility promotion model.

The findings showed that: (1) Through customer value, value co-creation exerts a positive impact on the visibility promotion of regional high-end hotels. (2) Power distance regulates the positive correlation between value co-creation and customer value. (3) Collectivism and individualism regulate the relationship between value co-creation and the social value to the customer. (4) Masculinity regulate the positive correlation between value co-creation and customer value. (5) Uncertainty avoidance regulates the positive correlation between value co-creation and customer value, showing a negative impact on the relations between value co-creation and the hedonic and social value to the customer and no significant impact on the relationship between value co-creation and the economic value to the customer. (6) Gender regulates the positive correlation between value co-creation and customer value. (7) Customer industry background regulates the positive correlation between value co-creation and customer value. (8) Co-creation channel has a positive regulating effect on the positive correlation between value co-creation and the economic value to the customer and a negative regulating effect on the positive correlation between value co-creation and the hedonic and social value to the customer. (9) Co-creation carrier has a negative regulating effect on the positive correlation between value co-creation and the economic value to the customer and a positive regulating effect on the positive correlation between value co-creation and the social value to the customer.

This paper provides practical enlightenment for regional high-end hotels in four aspects: (1) Give value co-creation and customer value their due importance. (2) The research results indicate that regional high-end hotels should adopt three value co-creation strategies to promote their visibility according to customer characteristics. (3)Emphasize co-creation channels in the encounter process. The research results indicate that regional high-end hotels should discover customers’ value preferences before carrying out value co-creation activities.

With the rise of social commerce platforms and customer engagement in online products and services, firms are focusing their attention on effective social online referral program to encourage customers’ online referral behaviors to grow their customer base. This study investigates the effectiveness of digital nudging for consumers’ social online referral on social commerce platforms.
Working with a leading home appliances and consumer electronics company, we conducted a large-scale randomized online field experiment of digital nudging on a social commerce platform. Drawing upon the nudging theory and Persuasion Principle, this study examines the role of nudging persuasive framed messages using product scarcity and social proof heuristics in influencing consumers’ social online referral. 
This research contributes to the literature on digital nudging and Persuasion Principle by providing evidence of the types of persuasion heuristics that are effective in influencing customers’ online referral. Our results show that using persuasive heuristic is an effective alternative to the common practice of using monetary incentives. Lastly, this research provides valuable guidelines and advice on how firms design an optimal online platform to effectively nudge and encourage social.