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The purpose of this paper is to systematically review and analyze the important, yet under-researched, topic of relationality in negotiations and propose new directions for future negotiation research.

This paper conducts a systematic review of negotiation literature related to relationality from multiple disciplines. Thirty-nine leading and topical academic journals are selected and 574 papers on negotiation are reviewed from 1990 to 2014. Based on the systematic review, propositions regarding the rationales for relationality in negotiations are developed and future research avenues in this area are discussed.

Of 574 papers on negotiations published in 39 peer-reviewed journals between 1990 and 2014, only 18 papers have studied and discussed relationality in negotiations. This suggests that relationality as a theoretical theme has long been under-researched in negotiation research. For future research, this paper proposes to incorporate the dynamic, cultural and mechanism perspectives, and to use a qualitative approach to study relationality in negotiations.

This paper presents the first systematic review of the negotiation literature on relationality, and identifies new research topics on relationality in negotiations. In so doing, this research opens new avenues for future negotiation research on relationality.

This paper aims to advance an integrative perspective of dynamic relationality in negotiation research by providing a symbiotic solution to modeling the cultural adaptation process in intercultural negotiations.

Based on a solution-oriented symbiotic approach, the authors analyze negotiators’ combination strategy to propose the dynamic convergence of dyadic relational negotiation behavior (RNB) both as a descriptive framework and a prescriptive solution to behavioral congruence in intercultural negotiations. The authors use spreadsheet platform with artificial data input to simulate various RNB dynamics between negotiators.

The authors identify the research gap between the arelational, static paradigm in negotiation literature and the relational, dynamic reality in negotiation practices, develop a fourfold typology of the existing negotiation research and propose the construct of RNB. The authors simulate the dyadic dynamics of RNB in a symbiotic framework. Results illustrate varied dyadic patterns of convergent RNB dynamics, demonstrating the effectiveness of the symbiotic solution to achieving behavioral congruence under multiple conditions. Propositions are then presented to predict negotiators’ initial relational behavior, describe dyadic coevolution of RNB in intercultural negotiations and explicate the relevant chronic consequences regarding relational and economic capital.

This paper fills a significant knowledge gap in the extant cross-cultural negotiation literature by addressing dynamic behavioral adaptation through a relational lens. This symbiotic framework is both descriptive in its predictive capacity to simulate the complexity of non-linear negotiation environment, and prescriptive in its directive capacity to guide negotiators’ plan of action given each other’s observed behavior with a probability estimation.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the role of relationality in buyer–supplier negotiations and how it varies across cultural settings.

Using a multisession simulation design, this study recruited research participants (n = 82) from diverse cultural backgrounds to play the role of either buyer or supplier for two negotiation tasks. Regression analyses were used to test the relationships among relational constructs as well as the moderating role of relational culture.

Results show that negotiators’ relational self-construal enhances their relational commitment to the ongoing negotiations, which leads to a higher level of relational capital accumulated at the end of negotiations. The impact of relational self-construal on relational commitment and that of relational commitment on counterparts’ relational capital are stronger for negotiators from a high (as opposed to low) relational cultural background. Furthermore, intercultural negotiation context, when compared with intracultural context, weakens the impact of relational commitment on relational capital.

This research is among the first to empirically examine the culturally varied relationality in negotiations. The findings offer important theoretical and practical implications regarding how relationality, when interacting with cultural factors, has varying impacts on business negotiations.

Through a life-narrative perspective, this research seeks to reveal the underlying mechanisms driving and sustaining outstanding leadership among top Chinese business leaders in a transitioning environment.

The authors extracted primary thematic patterns of leadership activities by analyzing the qualitative data collected from in-depth semistructured interviews with 17 top business leaders in China.

Results revealed four major activities through which leaders can effectively lead their organizations toward a long-term growth, that is, balancing relationship with government, leveraging market uncertainties, reinventing and consolidating the organization and self-regulation and adaptation.

The findings explain how outstanding leadership can emerge in a typical transition economy through multidexterity in critical leadership activities and shed light on developing a contextually relevant theory of outstanding leadership.

The current study investigated the impact of organisational trust on emotional well-being and performance of middle leaders during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

A convenience sample of 265 middle leaders in kindergartens in China responded involving trust in schools (e.g. trust in principal and trust in colleagues), emotional well-being and job performance. Both confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM) were used in the investigation.

Three hypotheses on the relationships between the three constructs were verified. Trust in schools significantly influenced emotional well-being and job performance of middle leaders which correlated with each other. The interactive effects of trust in principal and trust in colleagues were discussed for improving the well-being and job performance of middle leaders. Relationships between the two kinds of trust and pride were also identified in the research.

Further studies may put efforts towards improving these three outcomes synchronously.

Based on the evidence of the current study, future research may focus on how middle leaders act as a bridging role between different stakeholders such as principal and teachers, principal and parents, teachers and children, meanwhile how to boost the leaders' own well-being and performance in the early childhood education (ECE).

This study established the empirical linkages between school trusts, emotional well-being and job performance.

Classifying the types of fabric defects in the textile industry requires a way to effectively detect. The traditional textile fabric defects detection method is human eyes, which performs very low efficiency and high cost. Therefore, how to improve the classification accuracy of textile fabric defects by using current artificial intelligence and to better meet the needs in the textile industry, the purpose of this article is to develop a method to improve the accuracy of textile fabric defects classification.

To improve the accuracy of textile fabric defects classification, an ensemble learning-based convolutional neural network (CNN) method in terms of textile fabric defects classification (short for ECTFDC) on an enhanced TILDA database is used. ECTFDC first adopts ensemble learning-based model to classify five types of fabric defects from TILDA. Subsequently, ECTFDC extracts features of fabric defects via an ensemble multiple convolutional neural network model and obtains parameters by using transfer learning method.

The authors applied ECTFDC on an enhanced TILDA database to improve the robustness and generalization ability of the proposed networks. Experimental results show that ECTFDC outperforms the other networks, the precision and recall rates are 97.8%, 97.68%, respectively.

The ensemble convolutional neural network textile fabric defect classification method in this paper can quickly and effectively classify textile fabric defect categories; it can reduce the production cost of textiles and it can alleviate the visual fatigue of inspectors working for a long time.

This study aims to develop a comprehensive green supplier governance (GSG) concept and explore whether specific GSG approaches (green supplier assessment, green supplier assistance and green strategic partnership with suppliers (GSPS)) bring environmental and economic performance. Moreover, this study aims to reveal a synergistic effect of three GSG approaches on performance improvement.

Using data collected from 200 Chinese manufacturing firms, regression analysis was employed to reveal the relationship between specific GSG approaches and firm performance. Further, cluster analysis was used to identify groupings of firms regarding implementation levels of three GSG approaches and compare the performance of the firm groups.

Green supplier assessment (GSA) can bring environmental performance, but GSA is not associated with economic performance. Green supplier assistance is positively associated with economic performance, while green supplier assistance cannot improve environmental performance. Only GSPS leads to improvement for both environmental and economic performance. Furthermore, firms with high implementation levels of GSA and GSPS (whether with high or low implementation levels of GSAS) can achieve the best environmental and financial performance.

This study provides implications for firms to more strategically and comprehensively implement GSG approaches, which can be more effective in bringing environmental and economic performance.

The authors' study extends the GSG concept with two approaches by subdividing the collaborative approach into green supplier assistance and GSPS based on the collaboration levels. This study also sheds light on how to improve firm performance by different GSG approaches and reveals a synergistic effect of three GSG approaches on performance.

Green supply chain management (GSCM) and the circular economy (CE) overlap but also differ. The purpose of this paper is to clarify linkages between these two concepts. It identifies mutual theory applications used to study GSCM and CE.

A systematic literature review is conducted to identify theories from GSCM and CE studies. A critical analysis explores the theories that can provide mutual applications between GSCM and CE fields. Propositions are developed.

In all, 12 theories are applied in both GSCM and CE studies. Several theories are only applied in GSCM studies, but can help to advance CE study. These theories include complexity, transaction cost economics, agency, and information theories. Each of the eight theories only applied to CE can potentially advance GSCM study.

The findings contribute to further theory development for both GSCM and CE study. A methodological review can advance theoretical development and cross-pollination in both fields.

This work is the first study to explicitly explore linkages of GSCM and CE from a theoretical perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the indigenous Chinese concept of suzhi (素质) with the aim of furthering the development of Chinese human resource management (HRM) research and practice.

An extensive review of the literature on suzhi, published in the West, as well as in China, is the basis for proffering an organizational-level conceptualization of suzhi in the Chinese context.

Instead of understanding it as a free-floating signifier, we argue that suzhi can be considered as a criterion-based framework for HRM research and practice. Suzhi research is classified into two major sources – indigenous Chinese and indigenized Western constructs. We further make a distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic suzhi, and analyze a popular set of suzhi criteria, considering de (morality) and cai (talent), while focusing on de in HRM selection (德才兼备, 以德为先). As multilevel and multidimensional framework, suzhi criteria may form different gestalts in different organizations and industries.

From a social cultural and historical perspective, HRM research that incorporates a combination of indigenous and indigenized suzhi characteristics may receive better acceptance by individuals, organizations and the society in the Chinese context. Accordingly, the reconstruction of suzhi into manageable and measurable dimensions can be undertaken for more effective HRM practice in the Chinese context.

The HRM literature is advanced by linking the indigenous suzhi discourse to Chinese indigenous HRM research and practice.