Maneuvering through Hostile Environments: How Firms Leverage Product and Process Innovativeness

Is focusing on innovativeness the appropriate organizational response in hostile environments? This study addresses four distinct forms of hostile environments: market decline, restrictiveness, competition, and resource scarcity. The research draws on contingency theory to explain how these forms of hostility affect product innovativeness, process innovativeness, and firm performance. While the extant literature has investigated the effects of hostile environments on performance, little has been done to distinguish between different forms of hostility and, in turn, their potential effect on product and process innovativeness. We argue that investments in product and process innovativeness are either fostered or hindered, contingent on the form of hostile pressures from the external operating environment. These firm responses should in turn suppress the negative effects of hostility on performance. A survey using newly developed measurement scales for hostile environments was used to collect data from 148 small and medium‐sized manufacturing plants. The results provide evidence that generally supports our hypotheses. More specifically, the direct effects of the four forms of hostile environments impact product and process innovativeness differently. Likewise, the suppression and consistent mediation effects of product and process innovativeness differ depending upon the type of hostile environment, suggesting that manufacturers consider applying these capabilities contingent upon the type of hostile climate they face. Therefore, to understand how firms leverage product and process innovativeness, hostile environments are best differentiated into categories rather than being aggregated.     

中国食品安全网络舆情的发展趋势及基本特征

利用舆情监测平台的数据分析了2007-2014年间中国食品安全网络舆情的发展趋势,并基于内容分析法探究食品安全网络舆情中政府、媒体、网民等主体的行为特征和食品安全事件等客体的风险特征。2007-2014年间的中国食品安全网络舆情经历了四个阶段,但对网络舆情主体的行为特征的研究表明,食品安全网络舆情环境并没有发生本质的变化;政府在曝光食品安全事件方面发挥着重要作用,但网民对政府的信任程度低。对食品安全网络舆情客体的风险特征的研究表明,2011-2014年间食品安全事件的风险特征十分明显,肉及制品、乳制品等是爆发食品安全事件的主要食品种类,添加剂或食用物质的滥用等人源性因素是我国食品安全事件频发的主要原因,食品安全事件主要发生在加工环节,大中型食品企业是主要的食品安全事件责任主体,广东省、北京市、江苏省等经济发达的东部沿海地区是爆发食品安全事件的主要地区。     

我国社会养老保险经济成本分析

据世界银行的资料显示,到21世纪上半叶,中国国民生产总值可占世界总量的10%,但却要负担世界20-25%的老年人,在未富先老的严峻形势下,完善当前的养老保险制度安排,保证养老保险制度的财务可持续性显得尤为重要。本文从社会养老保险运行经济成本的角度,分析了我国1997年转制前后养老保险经济成本的变化趋势及主要原因,并给出了保持适度养老金经济成本的主要路径。     

Measuring consumer digital engagement and political consumerism as outcomes of corporate political advocacy

Given the need for more research into consumer digital engagement in response to corporate political advocacy (CPA) within the public relations body of knowledge, this study examines CPA in the scholarly literature on business ethics and public relations. To advance the understanding of CPA, particularly how to measure behavioral outcomes of CPA, we develop and validate an original scale with four dimensions from two domains. The first domain of CPA outcomes is consumer digital engagement (CDE-CPA), which considers a variety of sociopolitical activities on social media and degrees of behavioral effort required for these activities. The second is political consumerism, which measures consumer political preference expression through purchasing behavior including buycotting and boycotting. Theoretical and practical implications of the research are discussed.     

Dual strategy process in open strategizing

This paper inductively unravels the dual process of open strategy by delving into the relationships between transparency and inclusion from a longitudinal case study. Drawing on these data, we theorize that strategy transparency affects inclusion instead of shaping the success of platform match-making services directly. By disentangling transparency into transparency of procedures and of the participants' assets/resources, and inclusion into the range of participants, participant entitlement and participant commitment, we map how sub-dimensions of open strategy influences one another. Specifically, procedural transparency influences the range of participants and participant entitlement, while transparency of the participants' assets/resources affects participant commitment. In return, inclusion influences the development of three attributes of participants' assets/resources: variety, density and usability, which are key to platform match-making success. Our findings also suggest that open strategy does not exert a one-way influence on the development of participants' assets/resources. Instead, strategy and the attributes of participants’ assets/resources are both the medium and the outcome of recursive interactions, suggesting that experimentation and reflective learning help refine open strategizing.     

拉动经济增长的新兴消费产业研究——以老龄产业为例

中国三十年来的经济发展表明,在拉动中国经济增长的三种动力中对外出口会随国际形势的变化而呈现出不确定性与不可控性,政府投资仅仅是出口与消费受阻时所采取的权宜之计,具有波动性、滞后性特征,而基于消费需求尤其是老年消费需求基础上发展起来的老龄产业具有较高的稳定性和持久性,它能够促进生产力的持续发展,为国民经济的发展提供持久动力。所以,要从扩大消费内需入手,就必需大力发展以物质和服务消费为导向的老龄消费产业,使之成为推动中国经济发展的战略选择与重要增长极。     

民族地区FDI、对外贸易与经济增长的相关性研究——基于广西1990-2013的实证分析

International trade and investment have been two major topics in the field of interna-tional economics. They are also two main ways to deepen foreign economic ties. With the rapid de-velopment of the China—ASEAN free trade area and the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone, international trade and investment have had an important influ-ence on the ethnic areas of Guangxi. Guangxi is a frontier and coastal minority area, and as well as an important window opening on to the ASEAN e-conomic sphere and economic hinterland. It has great power and vitality for economic development within the ASEAN economic sphere. However, Guangxi, if compared with domestic developed are-as, is a relatively backward region within China’s economy. Its level for utilizing FDI( Foreign Direct Investment) lags behind, and its foreign trade vol-ume has definitely lagged far behind that in the more developed coastal provinces. This has severe-ly restricted the economic and social transformation of the Guangxi, and is an important obstacle for re-alizing a “well -off” society in ethnic areas. In recent years, resulting in the increasing external dependency in ethnic areas, the development of foreign investment has kept steady. This has played an important role in promoting technological progress and adjusting the industrial structure in ethnic areas. At the same time, foreign investment has also increased the speed of the ethnic minority areas’ ability to absorb advanced technology and management experience. This, in turn, has had great significance for further exploring international markets. However, the various regions in China have differences in their utilization of FDI and for-eign trade, so, effective an evaluation for exploring foreign trade and FDI has had a specific effect on the economic growth in ethnic areas, which can provide certain reference points for ethnic minority areas to formulate economic policy. Based on the relevant data of exports, imports and economic growth collected between 1990 and 2013 for Guan-gxi, and using statistical analysis and the econo-metric regression method, this article studies the relationship between FDI, foreign trade and eco-nomic growth in ethnic minority areas of Guangxi.     

原产国效应与原产地效应的实证研究--中韩比较

本研究在国际营销研究领域里比较广泛探讨的原产国效应(Country of Origin Effect)的基础上,分析了中国消费者在评价国内外品牌时所产生的原产地效应(Region of Origin Effect)问题.根据韩国/中国和上海/沈阳的原产国和原产地效应的实证分析,发现中国消费者评价韩国或中国产品时不受原产国效应的影响,但却受到原产地效应影响,这是本研究的重要发现,也对企业管理实践具有重要意义.     

消费者短视和以旧换新情形下设计架构与定价策略研究

耐用品的耐用性会抑制了新一代耐用品的销售,企业通常会采用以旧换新政策来激励新一代耐用品的销售。企业有两种产品设计架构策略:一体化架构策略与模块化架构策略,同时企业也有两种定价策略:静态定价策略和动态定价策略。在这种情况下,企业该如何确定产品设计架构和定价策略?在假定两期内消费者是短视情形下,论文建立了消费者与企业博弈模型分析和比较了三种情况。研究发现,无论是静态定价还是动态定价,无论是模块化架构还是一体化架构,购买了第一代产品的消费者都会整体更换成第二代产品;随着第二代核心系统的质量提升,以旧换新促使企业产品架构选择从一体化架构转变为选择模块化架构;当采用动态定价、第二代核心系统质量提升适中和折扣因子高时,企业会选择模块化架构;当企业采用模块化架构时,以旧换新政策会降低模块化产品第二代核心子系统和基础子系统之间的兼容性;如果两代产品之间的质量差距比较大,企业将会选择动态定价策略,反之会选择静态定价策略。     

浅谈体验经济背景下的产品体验设计

体验设计是伴随体验经济而来的一种新的设计思想。它通过关注使用者的感官知觉、心理感受等方面,追求更佳的用户体验,努力为消费者营造美好的体验过程。通过对体验设计关注的五个方面（情感体验、感官体验、思维体验、行为体验、关联体验）的分析,阐述进行体验设计的方法。指出在新的社会背景下,设计师应当将更多的注意力集中到用户体验设计上,充分研究体验设计,力求创造最佳的用户体验。